CHICAGO -- Here we go. One game left in the college hockey season, and it belongs to the NCHC. UMD and Denver collide at United Center for the national championship. The teams met Dec. 9-10 in Denver, with the Pioneers winning 4-3 before UMD took the rematch 3-1 in what was probably the best-played series of the regular season for the Bulldogs (in terms of their play and the quality of the competition).
Game preview
Great senior classes collide
Harvard recap
6:30 montage on 92.1 The Fan. Stream it here (it should be active by 6pm). Hope you all enjoy it, wherever you are.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Anderson
Osterberg - Johnson - Kuhlman
Tufte - Peterson - Mackay
Young - Thomas - Exell
Pionk - Kotyk
Soucy - Raskob
Wolff - Molenaar
Miska - Shepard - Deery
DU
Lukosevicius - Gambrell - Terry
McLellan - Borgstrom - Finlay
Janssen - Marcinew - O'Connor
Romig - Ritt - Staub
Butcher - Plant
Hammond - Davies
Hillman - VanVoorhis
Jaillet - Cowley
Showing posts with label denver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label denver. Show all posts
Saturday, April 08, 2017
Frozen Four: UMD, Denver Seniors Earn One More Ride
CHICAGO -- Both combatants in Saturday's NCAA title game at United Center boast seven-man senior classes.
While every one of those players took a different path to this game, those seniors are a large reason both the UMD Bulldogs and Denver Pioneers have found themselves playing for the ultimate prize in college hockey.
On the UMD side, while each senior has made a large impact on this team, the main water-carriers have been captain Dominic Toninato and longtime linemate (going back to their time in juniors with Fargo) Alex Iafallo.
"Number one, they had a lot of success together in Fargo," head coach Scott Sandelin said Friday. "So when you're bringing them both in at the same time, I'm not going to screw that up, you just keep playing them together. And at times I've thought is one helping the other or hurting the other, maybe they're too comfortable, and we've tried that, as you've seen moving Al maybe to a different line.
"But we always seem to go back to those two because of their chemistry. And I think they love playing together. I think they both complement each other very well. So been pretty easy. And we've just had to find a right winger for those guys.
"But if you look at them, again, I've said this a number of times, they've been awesome for us this year. I think they've both had great years. I think they both have played at a very high level consistently."
Toninato set up Joey Anderson's first-period goal in Thursday's semifinal win over Harvard with an offensive zone faceoff win. Then Iafallo tipped a pass from Willie Raskob with 26.6 seconds left to lift UMD to another in a series of one-goal wins.
(Iafallo, by the way, was named a First Team West Region All American by the American Hockey Coaches Association Friday. He was previously named first-team All NCHC and hit 50 points for the season and scored his 20th goal of the season for the winner Thursday.)
"It's a pretty surreal feeling," Kotyk said of getting to the championship game. "We've all had different paths. But I think we've come together as a team. Everybody brings something a little different to the table."
Kotyk is the oldest player on the team at 25, older than people who are here covering the tournament. He arrived at St. Scholastica as an older freshman, then transferred to UMD after one season. That meant sitting out the 2013-14 season and getting three years of eligibility after that, hence the age gap.
"I think we've got guys who bought into their roles," Raskob said, "and I think that's been the difference this year, is everyone's accepted the role they have on the team and, yeah, it's been incredible and so amazing and so surreal, and just taking everything in and enjoying the moment."
Raskob has been pretty consistently a top-four defenseman for UMD since his arrival from Shattuck-St. Mary's by way of his hometown of Hastings. Raskob's informal nickname, Mr. March, might need to be expanded to add April. In 18 postseason games in his career, Raskob has six goals, 12 points, and a plus-eight that leads all active UMD players.
For most of his career, Raskob has been paired with Carson Soucy. When the latter went down with a lower-body injury March 3 against Western Michigan and couldn't play in the NCAA West Regional two weeks ago in Fargo, Raskob did everything he could -- including scoring the overtime winner against Ohio State -- to make sure his partner got to play in the Frozen Four.
"That's huge," Soucy said. "It shows how close our team has been. That's what it takes to get here, you have to want to do it for the guy sitting next to you."
UMD's punching bag, so to speak, has been forward Kyle Osterberg. Along with posting strong offensive numbers this season (12 goals, 23 points, three game-winners), Osterberg has been a fixture on the penalty kill throughout his career, and he has been good at drawing both penalties and the ire of his adversaries.
Not many things have made me happier in my 12 years doing this than watching Dan Molenaar have the season he had. The senior and former state champion at Eden Prairie has been snakebit by injuries and illness during his UMD career, but has put it all together this year to become a steady influence on the blue line. The only game Molenaar has missed was the opener against Michigan Tech (healthy scratch).
True to his form, Molenaar was a class act when asked about his emotions heading into the championship game.
"I want to give credit to the guys who aren't in the lineup," Molenaar said. "The last couple of years in the regionals and stuff I was out. I know how hard that is. But they've just been exceptional teammates. And I think that's a reflection of the character in our room, and I think it speaks volumes to the program that so many people laid the foundation to build. And it's just a blast to be here with these guys and, yeah, there's no other way we want to end it."
The task Saturday is formidable, against a Denver team that has a similar senior class that's on a mission to complete the journey that fell short last year, when the Pioneers lost a national semifinal to eventual champion North Dakota.
DU is captained by Hobey Baker winner Will Butcher, who eschewed the potential start of his professional career for one more year in college. He has led the charge for a group of older Pioneers who have spoken openly about their singular goal for this season.
"Well, you know, we've been here last year, and obviously we lost in the semifinal," said forward Emil Romig. "And it was pretty crushing for a lot of us. And so with you speaking to being on a mission, I mean, we've been working to get back here all year long. Ever since we lost, we wanted to do whatever we can to get back here, and we've worked really hard to accomplish that. And being back here definitely feels great. But, I mean, you know, we've got to finish it off."
Butcher could choose free agency this summer over signing with the Colorado Avalanche, who drafted him. However, he told NHL Network Friday after winning the Hobey his "sole focus" is Saturday's game against UMD.
It's the spot this group has worked all season to get to, and they refuse to be denied now.
Sound familiar?
While every one of those players took a different path to this game, those seniors are a large reason both the UMD Bulldogs and Denver Pioneers have found themselves playing for the ultimate prize in college hockey.
On the UMD side, while each senior has made a large impact on this team, the main water-carriers have been captain Dominic Toninato and longtime linemate (going back to their time in juniors with Fargo) Alex Iafallo.
"Number one, they had a lot of success together in Fargo," head coach Scott Sandelin said Friday. "So when you're bringing them both in at the same time, I'm not going to screw that up, you just keep playing them together. And at times I've thought is one helping the other or hurting the other, maybe they're too comfortable, and we've tried that, as you've seen moving Al maybe to a different line.
"But we always seem to go back to those two because of their chemistry. And I think they love playing together. I think they both complement each other very well. So been pretty easy. And we've just had to find a right winger for those guys.
"But if you look at them, again, I've said this a number of times, they've been awesome for us this year. I think they've both had great years. I think they both have played at a very high level consistently."
Toninato set up Joey Anderson's first-period goal in Thursday's semifinal win over Harvard with an offensive zone faceoff win. Then Iafallo tipped a pass from Willie Raskob with 26.6 seconds left to lift UMD to another in a series of one-goal wins.
(Iafallo, by the way, was named a First Team West Region All American by the American Hockey Coaches Association Friday. He was previously named first-team All NCHC and hit 50 points for the season and scored his 20th goal of the season for the winner Thursday.)
"It's a pretty surreal feeling," Kotyk said of getting to the championship game. "We've all had different paths. But I think we've come together as a team. Everybody brings something a little different to the table."
Kotyk is the oldest player on the team at 25, older than people who are here covering the tournament. He arrived at St. Scholastica as an older freshman, then transferred to UMD after one season. That meant sitting out the 2013-14 season and getting three years of eligibility after that, hence the age gap.
"I think we've got guys who bought into their roles," Raskob said, "and I think that's been the difference this year, is everyone's accepted the role they have on the team and, yeah, it's been incredible and so amazing and so surreal, and just taking everything in and enjoying the moment."
Raskob has been pretty consistently a top-four defenseman for UMD since his arrival from Shattuck-St. Mary's by way of his hometown of Hastings. Raskob's informal nickname, Mr. March, might need to be expanded to add April. In 18 postseason games in his career, Raskob has six goals, 12 points, and a plus-eight that leads all active UMD players.
For most of his career, Raskob has been paired with Carson Soucy. When the latter went down with a lower-body injury March 3 against Western Michigan and couldn't play in the NCAA West Regional two weeks ago in Fargo, Raskob did everything he could -- including scoring the overtime winner against Ohio State -- to make sure his partner got to play in the Frozen Four.
"That's huge," Soucy said. "It shows how close our team has been. That's what it takes to get here, you have to want to do it for the guy sitting next to you."
UMD's punching bag, so to speak, has been forward Kyle Osterberg. Along with posting strong offensive numbers this season (12 goals, 23 points, three game-winners), Osterberg has been a fixture on the penalty kill throughout his career, and he has been good at drawing both penalties and the ire of his adversaries.
Not many things have made me happier in my 12 years doing this than watching Dan Molenaar have the season he had. The senior and former state champion at Eden Prairie has been snakebit by injuries and illness during his UMD career, but has put it all together this year to become a steady influence on the blue line. The only game Molenaar has missed was the opener against Michigan Tech (healthy scratch).
True to his form, Molenaar was a class act when asked about his emotions heading into the championship game.
"I want to give credit to the guys who aren't in the lineup," Molenaar said. "The last couple of years in the regionals and stuff I was out. I know how hard that is. But they've just been exceptional teammates. And I think that's a reflection of the character in our room, and I think it speaks volumes to the program that so many people laid the foundation to build. And it's just a blast to be here with these guys and, yeah, there's no other way we want to end it."
The task Saturday is formidable, against a Denver team that has a similar senior class that's on a mission to complete the journey that fell short last year, when the Pioneers lost a national semifinal to eventual champion North Dakota.
DU is captained by Hobey Baker winner Will Butcher, who eschewed the potential start of his professional career for one more year in college. He has led the charge for a group of older Pioneers who have spoken openly about their singular goal for this season.
"Well, you know, we've been here last year, and obviously we lost in the semifinal," said forward Emil Romig. "And it was pretty crushing for a lot of us. And so with you speaking to being on a mission, I mean, we've been working to get back here all year long. Ever since we lost, we wanted to do whatever we can to get back here, and we've worked really hard to accomplish that. And being back here definitely feels great. But, I mean, you know, we've got to finish it off."
Butcher could choose free agency this summer over signing with the Colorado Avalanche, who drafted him. However, he told NHL Network Friday after winning the Hobey his "sole focus" is Saturday's game against UMD.
It's the spot this group has worked all season to get to, and they refuse to be denied now.
Sound familiar?
Friday, April 07, 2017
Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: Bulldogs Aim for Second National Championship
CHICAGO -- Before Thursday's national semifinal against Harvard at United Center, I asked UMD coach Scott Sandelin, working his third Frozen Four at UMD, how to balance a group of players in their first Frozen Four enjoying the moment with the do-or-die mentality it takes to win at this level.
"You don't get out of your routine," he said. "You can't take the excitement away. It's hard to get to this point. It's still a hockey game. You have to go in there and everyone has to trust what you've done all year, have confidence, and go play. This is not a time of year to throw in a bunch of new stuff. Hopefully, our guys play our best games of the year."
On the UMD roster, there isn't one player who has been through this before. Sure, you have coaches with ring cred. Captain Dominic Toninato's father, Jim, was on two UMD Frozen Four teams in the 1980s. Freshman forward Joey Anderson has played in some highly-charged environments with U.S. national teams, most notably the World Junior team that won gold in Canada barely three months ago.
And as we've discussed at length on this here blog, there doesn't seem to be anything that phases this UMD team. No deficit too large, no challenge too difficult. These guys know what lies in front of them Saturday night.
"We know they're very skilled hockey team," senior defenseman Brenden Kotyk said. "They've got Will Butcher back there and (Henrik) Borgström and (Dylan) Gambrell. (Troy) Terry. They're all exceptional hockey players.
"So I just don't think we have to quit what we're doing right now, we've just got to keep playing defense on those guys especially and be real hard on them. I think that will be key to us."
"We know they pose a big challenge in some ways because of how they play and their offensive ability and puck possession ability, and I think they defend very well, too," Sandelin said.
Denver is a classic example of a team that's more than the sum of its parts. Borgström jumps off the page, and off the screen when you watch him play. He's that kind of player. DU coach Jim Montgomery has talked at length about the offensive ability Borgström has, but this week was asked about what area he's seen his star freshman improve most in. He didn't hesitate.
"He's played without the puck," Montgomery said. "When he wants to, he can be dominant on all 200 feet of the ice. It's just a question of whether he wants his motor to go."
Sandelin was asked about defending the Finnish star, who didn't play in the Dec. 9-10 series between these teams in Denver because of illness.
"You're going to give up some things," Sandelin said. "But you just gotta be aware and you gotta take as much time and space away, just like any good player. You do your best.
"Sometimes you've got to respect those guys a little bit, because if you're too aggressive, they can make you look really stupid. So you've got to be a little bit smart with angles and different things. Reminds me about playing against Jack Eichel a couple of years ago. Just because they have a little more length versus the shorter guys, but they're hard to defend."
Gambrell is a highly-talented offensive player. Terry is another one. Jarid Lukosevicius not only has the best name in college hockey, but he might be the most underrated player on this team. Lukosevicius leads this stacked roster with 147 shots on goal. He's not bashful about firing from anywhere, and with the shot he possesses, he shouldn't be.
On the blue line, Butcher (seven goals, 37 points) just won the Hobey Baker Award (well deserved, by the way), and he's joined by emerging freshman Michael Davies, underrated puck-mover Adam Plant, and big junior Tariq Hammond, who scored off a beautifully-executed odd-man rush in the semifinal thumping of Notre Dame.
A reporter asked Sandelin about trying to slow down Denver, which is almost undoubtedly the fastest team in the country (all due respect to UMD, because I think the Bulldogs are fast, but UMD is a heavier version of Denver, capable of playing with a lot of pace but probably not quite DU's).
Sandelin: "When you look at -- if you look at, number one, just forechecking, their D -- they're very -- they don't have maybe the biggest guy. Hammond is a bigger player, but they've got some great skill and shiftiness. You've got to be careful. You can try and play really aggressive in their face, but they support the puck so well and those guys are pretty elusive that you've got to certainly play above the puck. Be aggressive when you can be.
"But just defensively you've got to be tight. And you're going to have to weather some storms. They're going to play in the offensive zone and they transition well, but in the offensive zone, they possess the puck, they move, they get five men involved in the attack, and obviously they've got some great guys to finish around the net.
"And they're a very good small-area team, and their D add to that with their involvement. So sometimes you're going to have defensemen at the blue line, our defensemen, just sometimes how they move around.
"And there's got to be a lot of communication. Like I said, we've seen them play. We've played against them. So that helps. And we've seen a lot of teams play that way, so that helps.
"But I just think one of the things they do really well is not just on their forecheck, but their end zone forecheck. They're probably one of the best puck pursuit teams that get above you and they don't give you room, and they make it very difficult to make clean plays or plays because they recover above the puck and they pursue the puck so well."
Montgomery called the rivalry between the two "fiercely respectful", and he was effusive in his praise of the Bulldogs Friday, especially the top line of Toninato, Alex Iafallo, and Anderson.
"They're a great college line. And I think maybe the best line in the country. And I think you've just got to know when they're out there and match their intensity.
"Their intensity, I think, fuels that team. And I think the third player that fuels that team with intensity is (Neal) Pionk on the back end.
... "I know how good -- we all know how good and talented Duluth is. They're a mentally tough team. They're hard in all three zones. They don't give you an inch. And we know that. You're going to have to go out and earn it. That's why I think it's going to be a great game (Saturday) night."
The only matchup we saw with these two teams was that aforementioned December weekend in Denver. The Pioneers won 4-3 Friday, then UMD won 3-1 Saturday. Sandelin quipped again Friday that he felt his team played better in the game it lost than the one it won, an opinion he shared with me after the series ended while we were traveling home.
The Friday game was as good a pace as you'll see in a college hockey game, and UMD held its own quite nicely, even playing its first game in 19 days and doing it at altitude.
Players on both teams talked about the respect the teams have for one another.
"It's always physical against those guys," DU senior Emil Romig said, "but obviously we really respect each other. This year we've been, you know, switching off in the No. 1 and No. 2 spot basically all year long. So basically there's a lot of respect.
"They're big, they're strong. They skate well, and it's always been tough. So I think it's going to be a great game."
"That weekend was a lot of fun as a player," Pioneers forward Colin Staub said. "It was back-and-forth hockey. It was a lot of speed. It was pretty physical, and like it was the time Duluth was the No. 1 team in the country and it was 1 versus 2 that weekend and there was a lot of hype going into it and it was a lot of fun for players."
Toninato deemed it the "ultimate rubber match. We've been one and two all year, so this is for all the marbles. We need to play the best full 60 minutes we have all year."
"They have good forwards who will make plays. We have to play our game," senior defenseman Carson Soucy, who played Thursday for the first time in eight games, said.
I look at this matchup, and the first thing that needs to be understood is these teams' paths to this point were different. By no means am I trying to discount Michigan Tech, Penn State, or Notre Dame, or claim that UMD had a more difficult route to the title game.
They're different enough teams that the differences matter, if that makes sense. Denver is a full-on pace team. The veteran presence the Pioneers get from guys like Butcher allows them to grind on teams when it's called on, but it's not their preferred style. They want to get out and skate. They're lethal in transition, very hard to forecheck effectively against, and don't take a lot of penalties.
Denver might want to push the pace Saturday night, but look for UMD to play a similar game as Thursday against Harvard, where the Bulldogs are content to use their grinding forecheck to wear down its foe and create scoring chances. One observer compared UMD's forecheck to, well I'll just let you read it because it's more fun that way.
Frankly, it's not the craziest thing Mike Eidelbes has ever tweeted. Not even close. In fact, I'd say it's accurate. No one in the country -- with all due respect to North Dakota -- forechecks as well as UMD. Outside of maybe Denver. But that's where there are stark differences in the teams these two have faced in this run.
UMD was challenged by an Ohio State team that frustrated it by coming at the Bulldogs in waves, especially once down a couple goals in the third period. Against Boston University, UMD played a much stronger defensive game and found a way to get the winner in overtime. But make no mistake, they were different games. The Bulldogs found a defensive posture in the BU game and were not going to let the Terriers destroy them with their speed and skill up the rink.
Harvard was very much the same. UMD had to take that first-period punch when Harvard just got too many chances on the power play. But the Bulldogs were not going to be an easy bunch to beat five-on-five. Until the end, when Harvard's goalie was pulled, UMD did a good job keeping the Crimson's good chances to a minimum (the somewhat-subjective "Grade-A Scoring Chances" chart, which is kept at the Frozen Four, gives Harvard five at even-strength before the flurry after Iafallo's winner; by comparison, UMD had seven).
By no means do I think UMD wants to slow the game down. That's not a pace UMD is good at playing, as we saw a few times this season. And there's a difference between playing a good pace game and a run-and-gun game, which is more Denver's style. UMD hits hard and attacks fast, and the Bulldogs can use their high-pressure defensive style (we hope) to limit Denver's looks and great chances while also forcing the kinds of mistakes other teams have struggled to force.
Much will be made of the first-ever all-NCHC final. Trust me, it's significant.
In fact, it says more about the relative strength of this conference than anything else you'll ever see in a 16-team, single-elimination hockey tournament. Everyone likes to (erroneously) tie the strength of these leagues to member schools' success in piling up national championships. But this has been the NCHC's season in many other ways.
1. Its top two teams, UMD and Denver, were the top two teams in the country by any respected metric for basically the entire season.
2. Imagine if Western Michigan were healthy down the stretch, had earned a one seed, and if North Dakota had fallen to a four. The real possibility of an all-NCHC Frozen Four existed, and it wouldn't have taken a lot of result-twisting the final weekend to make it happen.
3. For the second straight year, NCHC members were dominant in non-conference play. In fact, every NCHC member school beat at least one NCAA team from outside the conference. Yes, even Colorado College (Cornell) and Miami (Providence and Ohio State). And you wonder why coaches of the league's top teams have so much respect for the league their teams play in.
4. And if you're one of those who thinks a league's strength is actually related to the number of national championships it wins, the NCHC is about to win a second straight. And I'll guarantee you one of its teams will be among the top favorites to win in 2018.
Montgomery said it best after his team flummoxed Notre Dame Thursday night. Asked why he thought his team could jump on the Irish with their pace, he said "Because outside the NCHC, what I've seen the last two years is we're able to jump on people. That's not going to happen Saturday night. It's an NCHC opponent.
"NCHC opponents, two best teams consistently throughout the year in the NCHC, it's going to be a barn burner and a great show for college hockey."
If you're back in Duluth, there are a number of watch parties that UMD is promoting for Saturday night's game. Duluth parties are being held at Tavern on the Hill, Grandma's Sports Garden, Dubh Linn Irish Brew Pub, Sneakers Bar and Grill, Green Mill, and Kirby Student Center.
Also, the Black Woods in Two Harbors is hosting a party, as is Palmer's Tavern in Hibbing (the hometown of UMD coach Sandelin and sophomore forward Adam Johnson). There are also parties being held in such locales as Dallas, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, and Seattle. The UMD Alumni Relations Office has a full list here.
ESPN has the game with John Buccigross, Barry Melrose, and Quint Kessenich.
Obviously, we'd love if you listened to the radio broadcast. 92.1 The Fan in the Duluth area, or a FREE stream that works on desktop or mobile here. We start with what I think is a cool montage at 6:30, so join us for that. Pregame interviews with UMD seniors Toninato and Soucy, who have been such great kids to get to know the last four years. We chat with old friend and UMD alum Jess Myers, who is attending his 25th Frozen Four, after the first period, and Zach Schneider of KBJR joins us after the second to lend his perspective to this wonderful week we've spent in Chicago.
And we'll have plenty of time for thank yous and salutes, but this experience has been great so far. Different in a lot of ways from 2011, when we were in familiar territory in a city we all knew pretty well. Making the trek to a new city (at least for me) has been fun. For someone like me who's usually pretty intimidated by big cities, it's been fun to settle in and actually start to feel somewhat comfortable. Only one thing can make it better, and we'll find out soon enough if that's in the cards.
"You don't get out of your routine," he said. "You can't take the excitement away. It's hard to get to this point. It's still a hockey game. You have to go in there and everyone has to trust what you've done all year, have confidence, and go play. This is not a time of year to throw in a bunch of new stuff. Hopefully, our guys play our best games of the year."
On the UMD roster, there isn't one player who has been through this before. Sure, you have coaches with ring cred. Captain Dominic Toninato's father, Jim, was on two UMD Frozen Four teams in the 1980s. Freshman forward Joey Anderson has played in some highly-charged environments with U.S. national teams, most notably the World Junior team that won gold in Canada barely three months ago.
And as we've discussed at length on this here blog, there doesn't seem to be anything that phases this UMD team. No deficit too large, no challenge too difficult. These guys know what lies in front of them Saturday night.
"We know they're very skilled hockey team," senior defenseman Brenden Kotyk said. "They've got Will Butcher back there and (Henrik) Borgström and (Dylan) Gambrell. (Troy) Terry. They're all exceptional hockey players.
"So I just don't think we have to quit what we're doing right now, we've just got to keep playing defense on those guys especially and be real hard on them. I think that will be key to us."
"We know they pose a big challenge in some ways because of how they play and their offensive ability and puck possession ability, and I think they defend very well, too," Sandelin said.
******
Denver is a classic example of a team that's more than the sum of its parts. Borgström jumps off the page, and off the screen when you watch him play. He's that kind of player. DU coach Jim Montgomery has talked at length about the offensive ability Borgström has, but this week was asked about what area he's seen his star freshman improve most in. He didn't hesitate.
"He's played without the puck," Montgomery said. "When he wants to, he can be dominant on all 200 feet of the ice. It's just a question of whether he wants his motor to go."
Sandelin was asked about defending the Finnish star, who didn't play in the Dec. 9-10 series between these teams in Denver because of illness.
"You're going to give up some things," Sandelin said. "But you just gotta be aware and you gotta take as much time and space away, just like any good player. You do your best.
"Sometimes you've got to respect those guys a little bit, because if you're too aggressive, they can make you look really stupid. So you've got to be a little bit smart with angles and different things. Reminds me about playing against Jack Eichel a couple of years ago. Just because they have a little more length versus the shorter guys, but they're hard to defend."
Gambrell is a highly-talented offensive player. Terry is another one. Jarid Lukosevicius not only has the best name in college hockey, but he might be the most underrated player on this team. Lukosevicius leads this stacked roster with 147 shots on goal. He's not bashful about firing from anywhere, and with the shot he possesses, he shouldn't be.
On the blue line, Butcher (seven goals, 37 points) just won the Hobey Baker Award (well deserved, by the way), and he's joined by emerging freshman Michael Davies, underrated puck-mover Adam Plant, and big junior Tariq Hammond, who scored off a beautifully-executed odd-man rush in the semifinal thumping of Notre Dame.
******
A reporter asked Sandelin about trying to slow down Denver, which is almost undoubtedly the fastest team in the country (all due respect to UMD, because I think the Bulldogs are fast, but UMD is a heavier version of Denver, capable of playing with a lot of pace but probably not quite DU's).
Sandelin: "When you look at -- if you look at, number one, just forechecking, their D -- they're very -- they don't have maybe the biggest guy. Hammond is a bigger player, but they've got some great skill and shiftiness. You've got to be careful. You can try and play really aggressive in their face, but they support the puck so well and those guys are pretty elusive that you've got to certainly play above the puck. Be aggressive when you can be.
"But just defensively you've got to be tight. And you're going to have to weather some storms. They're going to play in the offensive zone and they transition well, but in the offensive zone, they possess the puck, they move, they get five men involved in the attack, and obviously they've got some great guys to finish around the net.
"And they're a very good small-area team, and their D add to that with their involvement. So sometimes you're going to have defensemen at the blue line, our defensemen, just sometimes how they move around.
"And there's got to be a lot of communication. Like I said, we've seen them play. We've played against them. So that helps. And we've seen a lot of teams play that way, so that helps.
"But I just think one of the things they do really well is not just on their forecheck, but their end zone forecheck. They're probably one of the best puck pursuit teams that get above you and they don't give you room, and they make it very difficult to make clean plays or plays because they recover above the puck and they pursue the puck so well."
Montgomery called the rivalry between the two "fiercely respectful", and he was effusive in his praise of the Bulldogs Friday, especially the top line of Toninato, Alex Iafallo, and Anderson.
"They're a great college line. And I think maybe the best line in the country. And I think you've just got to know when they're out there and match their intensity.
"Their intensity, I think, fuels that team. And I think the third player that fuels that team with intensity is (Neal) Pionk on the back end.
... "I know how good -- we all know how good and talented Duluth is. They're a mentally tough team. They're hard in all three zones. They don't give you an inch. And we know that. You're going to have to go out and earn it. That's why I think it's going to be a great game (Saturday) night."
The only matchup we saw with these two teams was that aforementioned December weekend in Denver. The Pioneers won 4-3 Friday, then UMD won 3-1 Saturday. Sandelin quipped again Friday that he felt his team played better in the game it lost than the one it won, an opinion he shared with me after the series ended while we were traveling home.
The Friday game was as good a pace as you'll see in a college hockey game, and UMD held its own quite nicely, even playing its first game in 19 days and doing it at altitude.
Players on both teams talked about the respect the teams have for one another.
"It's always physical against those guys," DU senior Emil Romig said, "but obviously we really respect each other. This year we've been, you know, switching off in the No. 1 and No. 2 spot basically all year long. So basically there's a lot of respect.
"They're big, they're strong. They skate well, and it's always been tough. So I think it's going to be a great game."
"That weekend was a lot of fun as a player," Pioneers forward Colin Staub said. "It was back-and-forth hockey. It was a lot of speed. It was pretty physical, and like it was the time Duluth was the No. 1 team in the country and it was 1 versus 2 that weekend and there was a lot of hype going into it and it was a lot of fun for players."
Toninato deemed it the "ultimate rubber match. We've been one and two all year, so this is for all the marbles. We need to play the best full 60 minutes we have all year."
"They have good forwards who will make plays. We have to play our game," senior defenseman Carson Soucy, who played Thursday for the first time in eight games, said.
******
I look at this matchup, and the first thing that needs to be understood is these teams' paths to this point were different. By no means am I trying to discount Michigan Tech, Penn State, or Notre Dame, or claim that UMD had a more difficult route to the title game.
They're different enough teams that the differences matter, if that makes sense. Denver is a full-on pace team. The veteran presence the Pioneers get from guys like Butcher allows them to grind on teams when it's called on, but it's not their preferred style. They want to get out and skate. They're lethal in transition, very hard to forecheck effectively against, and don't take a lot of penalties.
Denver might want to push the pace Saturday night, but look for UMD to play a similar game as Thursday against Harvard, where the Bulldogs are content to use their grinding forecheck to wear down its foe and create scoring chances. One observer compared UMD's forecheck to, well I'll just let you read it because it's more fun that way.
Watching UMDs forecheck is like throwing a rock at a hornet's nest and waiting around to see what happens.— Mike Eidelbes (@INCH) April 6, 2017
Frankly, it's not the craziest thing Mike Eidelbes has ever tweeted. Not even close. In fact, I'd say it's accurate. No one in the country -- with all due respect to North Dakota -- forechecks as well as UMD. Outside of maybe Denver. But that's where there are stark differences in the teams these two have faced in this run.
UMD was challenged by an Ohio State team that frustrated it by coming at the Bulldogs in waves, especially once down a couple goals in the third period. Against Boston University, UMD played a much stronger defensive game and found a way to get the winner in overtime. But make no mistake, they were different games. The Bulldogs found a defensive posture in the BU game and were not going to let the Terriers destroy them with their speed and skill up the rink.
Harvard was very much the same. UMD had to take that first-period punch when Harvard just got too many chances on the power play. But the Bulldogs were not going to be an easy bunch to beat five-on-five. Until the end, when Harvard's goalie was pulled, UMD did a good job keeping the Crimson's good chances to a minimum (the somewhat-subjective "Grade-A Scoring Chances" chart, which is kept at the Frozen Four, gives Harvard five at even-strength before the flurry after Iafallo's winner; by comparison, UMD had seven).
By no means do I think UMD wants to slow the game down. That's not a pace UMD is good at playing, as we saw a few times this season. And there's a difference between playing a good pace game and a run-and-gun game, which is more Denver's style. UMD hits hard and attacks fast, and the Bulldogs can use their high-pressure defensive style (we hope) to limit Denver's looks and great chances while also forcing the kinds of mistakes other teams have struggled to force.
******
Much will be made of the first-ever all-NCHC final. Trust me, it's significant.
In fact, it says more about the relative strength of this conference than anything else you'll ever see in a 16-team, single-elimination hockey tournament. Everyone likes to (erroneously) tie the strength of these leagues to member schools' success in piling up national championships. But this has been the NCHC's season in many other ways.
1. Its top two teams, UMD and Denver, were the top two teams in the country by any respected metric for basically the entire season.
2. Imagine if Western Michigan were healthy down the stretch, had earned a one seed, and if North Dakota had fallen to a four. The real possibility of an all-NCHC Frozen Four existed, and it wouldn't have taken a lot of result-twisting the final weekend to make it happen.
3. For the second straight year, NCHC members were dominant in non-conference play. In fact, every NCHC member school beat at least one NCAA team from outside the conference. Yes, even Colorado College (Cornell) and Miami (Providence and Ohio State). And you wonder why coaches of the league's top teams have so much respect for the league their teams play in.
4. And if you're one of those who thinks a league's strength is actually related to the number of national championships it wins, the NCHC is about to win a second straight. And I'll guarantee you one of its teams will be among the top favorites to win in 2018.
Montgomery said it best after his team flummoxed Notre Dame Thursday night. Asked why he thought his team could jump on the Irish with their pace, he said "Because outside the NCHC, what I've seen the last two years is we're able to jump on people. That's not going to happen Saturday night. It's an NCHC opponent.
"NCHC opponents, two best teams consistently throughout the year in the NCHC, it's going to be a barn burner and a great show for college hockey."
******
If you're back in Duluth, there are a number of watch parties that UMD is promoting for Saturday night's game. Duluth parties are being held at Tavern on the Hill, Grandma's Sports Garden, Dubh Linn Irish Brew Pub, Sneakers Bar and Grill, Green Mill, and Kirby Student Center.
Also, the Black Woods in Two Harbors is hosting a party, as is Palmer's Tavern in Hibbing (the hometown of UMD coach Sandelin and sophomore forward Adam Johnson). There are also parties being held in such locales as Dallas, Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York City, and Seattle. The UMD Alumni Relations Office has a full list here.
ESPN has the game with John Buccigross, Barry Melrose, and Quint Kessenich.
Obviously, we'd love if you listened to the radio broadcast. 92.1 The Fan in the Duluth area, or a FREE stream that works on desktop or mobile here. We start with what I think is a cool montage at 6:30, so join us for that. Pregame interviews with UMD seniors Toninato and Soucy, who have been such great kids to get to know the last four years. We chat with old friend and UMD alum Jess Myers, who is attending his 25th Frozen Four, after the first period, and Zach Schneider of KBJR joins us after the second to lend his perspective to this wonderful week we've spent in Chicago.
And we'll have plenty of time for thank yous and salutes, but this experience has been great so far. Different in a lot of ways from 2011, when we were in familiar territory in a city we all knew pretty well. Making the trek to a new city (at least for me) has been fun. For someone like me who's usually pretty intimidated by big cities, it's been fun to settle in and actually start to feel somewhat comfortable. Only one thing can make it better, and we'll find out soon enough if that's in the cards.
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Frozen Four: Johnson, Donato Present Challenges for Defenses
CHICAGO -- We already discussed some of the basic similarities that we'll see in the first national semifinal Friday night, when UMD battles Harvard.
As mentioned in that post, both teams have dynamic sophomore forwards, capable of scoring from almost literally anywhere.
For UMD, it's Hibbing native Adam Johnson. Senior Alex Iafallo has the team lead in goals with 19, but Johnson has scored some massive goals -- and some impressive ones -- this season. Case in point, his overtime winner in the NCAA West Regional final against Boston University.
Mentioned it at the time, but what an impressive play by Johnson, who naturally downplayed it to an extent.
“I took a one-timer and the shot got blocked," he said that night. "I was fortunate enough to get it back on the wall and I saw an opening. I just tried to fake a shot and get that guy to bite and shoot it by him. I found the corner and it was a good feeling.”
It's the kind of play Johnson has become quite adept at making. His shot -- and his ability to get that shot through to goaltenders -- has been a factor for UMD all season.
And when in doubt, Johnson has proven he has enough skill to score from behind the goal line, a trick he's successfully pulled off at least three times this season.
"Really quick feet," Iafallo said of his sometimes-linemate. "Very agile. He makes a lot of juice. Very good hands. He's been great for us. Especially on that power play, the last goal in overtime. Just simple things like that. He's very good at it."
It isn't so simple. Boston University coach David Quinn gave Iafallo credit on that play at first, for keeping the puck in the offensive zone with a strong pinch after BU won the faceoff and captain Doyle Somerby wrapped the puck around the wall. But Johnson's play -- firing the initial shot off Somerby, realizing he was stunned, and taking the puck right back at him -- was outstanding. UMD coach Scott Sandelin has preached a shoot-first mentality on the power play, and as of late the Bulldogs have turned a corner in that area.
Starting Feb. 3, UMD scored at least once on the man advantage over eight straight games. Since then, over 14 games total, the power play is 15-for-63 for a 23.8 percent clip that has lifted UMD's season total to an even 20 percent. Not the best season UMD has ever had on the power play, but it's gotten better and more productive and, more importantly, more dangerous. Johnson plays a huge role in that. With him and fellow sophomore Neal Pionk up top, teams have to respect the point shot, allowing more room to maneuver down low for guys like Iafallo, Dominic Toninato, and Joey Anderson.
Harvard sophomore Ryan Donato was a more highly-touted prospect heading into college, but he does a lot of the things Johnson does for UMD. The second-round pick of the Boston Bruins is the son of head coach Ted Donato, a former NHLer himself. Ryan Donato has a lethal shot, one that he's used to post a Crimson-leading (tied with senior Tyler Moy) 21 goals this season.
He can fly, an asset Johnson shares, and one Donato used to knife through the Air Force defense for a huge goal in the regional final win March 25. He also has a lethal shot and, like Johnson, can score from practically anywhere. He scored four goals against Union Feb. 10 and has 25 points in 23 games since the calendar flipped to 2017.
Overall, Sandelin is impressed with what Harvard brings to the table in this national semifinal.
"I think they're very balanced," he said. "Obviously, they've got some very talented forwards up front. Their top two lines especially. There's a lot of skill, a lot of deception. They're a puck-possession team. I've been impressed with their poise and composure."
That skill leads to a dangerous Harvard transition game, one that UMD can't feed into, not with turnovers and not with other mistakes, like slow or poorly-timed shift changes.
"Watching the tape," Sandelin said Wednesday, "I think a couple of their opponents had bad line changes, which led to some goals off rushes. We've got to have good rush coverage, making sure we're doing little things like that, making sure we're not changing at the wrong times. Those are mistakes that we just can't catch up."
The second game pits two old friends against one another. Denver coach Jim Montgomery got his start in this profession when he took a gig as a volunteer assistant at Notre Dame, working for Jeff Jackson.
Now, with Montgomery in his fourth year at DU, their paths cross on the sport's biggest stage.
"He's a great young coach," Jackson said of Montgomery. "He's got a great future ahead of him. He's got all the right aspects to being a great coach. I'm proud of him. I'm happy for him."
"For me, I'm happy," Montgomery said. "I think it shows that our relationship is special and that I learned from a great coach because he's here again for the sixth or seventh time in his career, and I've managed to get back here for the second year in a row.
"So whatever he taught me, I've been able to apply, and I think both teams play with a lot -- I guess the same way, and we don't beat ourselves, and we're hard to play against."
Jackson won three titles at Lake Superior State, but is seeking the first in Notre Dame history. Denver has seven titles, but none since 2005, when George Gwozdecky was still at the helm.
As mentioned in that post, both teams have dynamic sophomore forwards, capable of scoring from almost literally anywhere.
For UMD, it's Hibbing native Adam Johnson. Senior Alex Iafallo has the team lead in goals with 19, but Johnson has scored some massive goals -- and some impressive ones -- this season. Case in point, his overtime winner in the NCAA West Regional final against Boston University.
AN OVERTIME WINNER TO GO TO THE #FROZENFOUR! pic.twitter.com/2zq2XFiPGh— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) March 26, 2017
Mentioned it at the time, but what an impressive play by Johnson, who naturally downplayed it to an extent.
“I took a one-timer and the shot got blocked," he said that night. "I was fortunate enough to get it back on the wall and I saw an opening. I just tried to fake a shot and get that guy to bite and shoot it by him. I found the corner and it was a good feeling.”
It's the kind of play Johnson has become quite adept at making. His shot -- and his ability to get that shot through to goaltenders -- has been a factor for UMD all season.
And when in doubt, Johnson has proven he has enough skill to score from behind the goal line, a trick he's successfully pulled off at least three times this season.
"Really quick feet," Iafallo said of his sometimes-linemate. "Very agile. He makes a lot of juice. Very good hands. He's been great for us. Especially on that power play, the last goal in overtime. Just simple things like that. He's very good at it."
It isn't so simple. Boston University coach David Quinn gave Iafallo credit on that play at first, for keeping the puck in the offensive zone with a strong pinch after BU won the faceoff and captain Doyle Somerby wrapped the puck around the wall. But Johnson's play -- firing the initial shot off Somerby, realizing he was stunned, and taking the puck right back at him -- was outstanding. UMD coach Scott Sandelin has preached a shoot-first mentality on the power play, and as of late the Bulldogs have turned a corner in that area.
Starting Feb. 3, UMD scored at least once on the man advantage over eight straight games. Since then, over 14 games total, the power play is 15-for-63 for a 23.8 percent clip that has lifted UMD's season total to an even 20 percent. Not the best season UMD has ever had on the power play, but it's gotten better and more productive and, more importantly, more dangerous. Johnson plays a huge role in that. With him and fellow sophomore Neal Pionk up top, teams have to respect the point shot, allowing more room to maneuver down low for guys like Iafallo, Dominic Toninato, and Joey Anderson.
Harvard sophomore Ryan Donato was a more highly-touted prospect heading into college, but he does a lot of the things Johnson does for UMD. The second-round pick of the Boston Bruins is the son of head coach Ted Donato, a former NHLer himself. Ryan Donato has a lethal shot, one that he's used to post a Crimson-leading (tied with senior Tyler Moy) 21 goals this season.
He can fly, an asset Johnson shares, and one Donato used to knife through the Air Force defense for a huge goal in the regional final win March 25. He also has a lethal shot and, like Johnson, can score from practically anywhere. He scored four goals against Union Feb. 10 and has 25 points in 23 games since the calendar flipped to 2017.
Overall, Sandelin is impressed with what Harvard brings to the table in this national semifinal.
"I think they're very balanced," he said. "Obviously, they've got some very talented forwards up front. Their top two lines especially. There's a lot of skill, a lot of deception. They're a puck-possession team. I've been impressed with their poise and composure."
That skill leads to a dangerous Harvard transition game, one that UMD can't feed into, not with turnovers and not with other mistakes, like slow or poorly-timed shift changes.
"Watching the tape," Sandelin said Wednesday, "I think a couple of their opponents had bad line changes, which led to some goals off rushes. We've got to have good rush coverage, making sure we're doing little things like that, making sure we're not changing at the wrong times. Those are mistakes that we just can't catch up."
******
The second game pits two old friends against one another. Denver coach Jim Montgomery got his start in this profession when he took a gig as a volunteer assistant at Notre Dame, working for Jeff Jackson.
Now, with Montgomery in his fourth year at DU, their paths cross on the sport's biggest stage.
"He's a great young coach," Jackson said of Montgomery. "He's got a great future ahead of him. He's got all the right aspects to being a great coach. I'm proud of him. I'm happy for him."
"For me, I'm happy," Montgomery said. "I think it shows that our relationship is special and that I learned from a great coach because he's here again for the sixth or seventh time in his career, and I've managed to get back here for the second year in a row.
"So whatever he taught me, I've been able to apply, and I think both teams play with a lot -- I guess the same way, and we don't beat ourselves, and we're hard to play against."
Jackson won three titles at Lake Superior State, but is seeking the first in Notre Dame history. Denver has seven titles, but none since 2005, when George Gwozdecky was still at the helm.
Monday, February 13, 2017
Monday Musings: Denver Sweeps CC, Takes NCHC Lead From Idle UMD; Bulldogs Head to Colorado Next
Hope everyone enjoyed the bye weekend. Last one of the season for UMD, so naturally instead of sitting on the couch, I went to Wild games Friday and Sunday. Great time both trips, thanks for asking. 😜😎
UMD continues its prep for the stretch run this week, as the Bulldogs' NCHC title hopes will be determined by six games over the next three weekends to finish the regular season.
And UMD now knows it will start that stretch run from a chase position.
Denver took care of business over the weekend, sweeping longtime rival Colorado College in a home-and-home series to run its winning streak against the Tigers to 12 and taking a one-point lead on UMD for the top spot in the NCHC. DU won 2-1 at home Friday before routing the Tigers 5-1 in Colorado Springs Saturday. The Pioneers are playing incredibly well, with five straight wins and an 8-2 record since the calendar flipped to 2017. Over that ten-game run, DU has six games of five or more goals.
Of course, UMD has been no slouch since the break. The Bulldogs stumbled out of the gates in January, going 0-2-1 over the first three games. Since then, UMD is 6-0-1, including a two-game sweep at North Dakota and a championship at the North Star College Cup. The Bulldogs also have tightened defensively as of late, giving up just five goals over five games with two Hunter Miska shutouts thrown in. Only two of those five goals were scored at even strength.
It's a two-horse race in the NCHC, with Denver (41 points) and UMD (40) both having clinched home ice for the NCHC playoffs and UMD 11 points up on third-place Western Michigan in the standings. Let's look at the remaining schedules for both.
Denver
at Miami -- the teams tied twice in Denver Nov. 18-19, with DU winning both shootouts
vs St. Cloud State -- they split Jan. 20-21 in St. Cloud
at Omaha -- DU swept a home series from the Mavs Jan. 27-28
UMD
at Colorado College -- we all know what happened Jan. 6-7 in Duluth, ugh
vs Miami -- first meeting this season
at Western Michigan -- they split Nov. 11-12 in Duluth
You can't base a ton off the early-season meetings, but it's clear that both teams have difficult paths to the end of the regular season. Miami will give them both fits, thanks to an improving group of forwards and the play of freshman goalie Ryan Larkin, who has a very solid .920 save percentage despite his team not giving him a ton of run support. St. Cloud State is playing exceptionally well right now and just got a huge home sweep of Miami, but UMD has to deal with the Colorado Springs trip and fun with altitude off a bye week. And the Tigers beat UMD in Duluth in their last meeting.
So don't be shocked if the league title isn't decided until the last week of the season, with Denver in Omaha and UMD in Kalamazoo. And on the surface, the edge has to go to Denver with that in mind. Little explanation should be necessary.
(Both Omaha and WMU can be overly reliant on special teams to create goals, which isn't optimal as we enter a time of the season where there are usually not as many penalties in games. However, UNO is explosive up front, and Western might be the most underrated team in the league offensively.)
As for the rest of the league, here's how it looks.
DU 41
UMD 40
WMU 29
SCSU 28 (but only four games left)
UND 26
UNO 26 (but only four games left)
Miami 21
CC 11
Max point totals:
DU 59
UMD 58
WMU 47
UND 44
SCSU 40
Miami 39
UNO 38
CC 29
We don't know much. UMD and Denver will be at home for the first round (SCSU can only tie UMD, but UMD has the tiebreaker based on head to head wins) no matter what. Colorado College will be on the road. Nothing else is decided, as UNO and Miami could get home ice by going on a late run, and there's still time for someone currently in a home-ice position to fade out of it.
UMD heads to beautiful Colorado Springs this weekend. Usually, I'd openly wonder how good the Bulldogs will be coming out of a bye and playing at high altitude, but I don't doubt they'll be ready for this series. CC waltzed into Amsoil Arena and took four points from UMD Jan. 6-7 in what's easily been the low point of UMD's season to date. I can't guarantee UMD will play well, but I can be virtually certain this team will be prepared to play.
The Bulldogs have seen much success on Olympic ice in recent years, a story I love rehashing whenever they play at Minnesota. St. Cloud State, or Colorado College, the last bastions of the big sheet that this team plays on even a semi-regular basis.
In the last 12 games UMD has played on the big ice, it is 11-1, with the only loss last season to Northern Michigan. Over its last 30 games going back to the 2011-12 season, UMD is 18-9-3.
Should be a fun weekend. Weather looks fantastic, and TV VOX Zach Schneider is traveling on this trip. We'll show him the ropes. Or I'll sunbathe at the hotel while watching Baskets on Hulu. One or the other. Either way, talk next from Colorado barring any big and unexpected news at media day Wednesday. Follow @BruceCiskie on Twitter for the other stuff that happens.
UMD continues its prep for the stretch run this week, as the Bulldogs' NCHC title hopes will be determined by six games over the next three weekends to finish the regular season.
And UMD now knows it will start that stretch run from a chase position.
Denver took care of business over the weekend, sweeping longtime rival Colorado College in a home-and-home series to run its winning streak against the Tigers to 12 and taking a one-point lead on UMD for the top spot in the NCHC. DU won 2-1 at home Friday before routing the Tigers 5-1 in Colorado Springs Saturday. The Pioneers are playing incredibly well, with five straight wins and an 8-2 record since the calendar flipped to 2017. Over that ten-game run, DU has six games of five or more goals.
Of course, UMD has been no slouch since the break. The Bulldogs stumbled out of the gates in January, going 0-2-1 over the first three games. Since then, UMD is 6-0-1, including a two-game sweep at North Dakota and a championship at the North Star College Cup. The Bulldogs also have tightened defensively as of late, giving up just five goals over five games with two Hunter Miska shutouts thrown in. Only two of those five goals were scored at even strength.
******
It's a two-horse race in the NCHC, with Denver (41 points) and UMD (40) both having clinched home ice for the NCHC playoffs and UMD 11 points up on third-place Western Michigan in the standings. Let's look at the remaining schedules for both.
Denver
at Miami -- the teams tied twice in Denver Nov. 18-19, with DU winning both shootouts
vs St. Cloud State -- they split Jan. 20-21 in St. Cloud
at Omaha -- DU swept a home series from the Mavs Jan. 27-28
UMD
at Colorado College -- we all know what happened Jan. 6-7 in Duluth, ugh
vs Miami -- first meeting this season
at Western Michigan -- they split Nov. 11-12 in Duluth
You can't base a ton off the early-season meetings, but it's clear that both teams have difficult paths to the end of the regular season. Miami will give them both fits, thanks to an improving group of forwards and the play of freshman goalie Ryan Larkin, who has a very solid .920 save percentage despite his team not giving him a ton of run support. St. Cloud State is playing exceptionally well right now and just got a huge home sweep of Miami, but UMD has to deal with the Colorado Springs trip and fun with altitude off a bye week. And the Tigers beat UMD in Duluth in their last meeting.
So don't be shocked if the league title isn't decided until the last week of the season, with Denver in Omaha and UMD in Kalamazoo. And on the surface, the edge has to go to Denver with that in mind. Little explanation should be necessary.
(Both Omaha and WMU can be overly reliant on special teams to create goals, which isn't optimal as we enter a time of the season where there are usually not as many penalties in games. However, UNO is explosive up front, and Western might be the most underrated team in the league offensively.)
As for the rest of the league, here's how it looks.
DU 41
UMD 40
WMU 29
SCSU 28 (but only four games left)
UND 26
UNO 26 (but only four games left)
Miami 21
CC 11
Max point totals:
DU 59
UMD 58
WMU 47
UND 44
SCSU 40
Miami 39
UNO 38
CC 29
We don't know much. UMD and Denver will be at home for the first round (SCSU can only tie UMD, but UMD has the tiebreaker based on head to head wins) no matter what. Colorado College will be on the road. Nothing else is decided, as UNO and Miami could get home ice by going on a late run, and there's still time for someone currently in a home-ice position to fade out of it.
******
UMD heads to beautiful Colorado Springs this weekend. Usually, I'd openly wonder how good the Bulldogs will be coming out of a bye and playing at high altitude, but I don't doubt they'll be ready for this series. CC waltzed into Amsoil Arena and took four points from UMD Jan. 6-7 in what's easily been the low point of UMD's season to date. I can't guarantee UMD will play well, but I can be virtually certain this team will be prepared to play.
The Bulldogs have seen much success on Olympic ice in recent years, a story I love rehashing whenever they play at Minnesota. St. Cloud State, or Colorado College, the last bastions of the big sheet that this team plays on even a semi-regular basis.
In the last 12 games UMD has played on the big ice, it is 11-1, with the only loss last season to Northern Michigan. Over its last 30 games going back to the 2011-12 season, UMD is 18-9-3.
Should be a fun weekend. Weather looks fantastic, and TV VOX Zach Schneider is traveling on this trip. We'll show him the ropes. Or I'll sunbathe at the hotel while watching Baskets on Hulu. One or the other. Either way, talk next from Colorado barring any big and unexpected news at media day Wednesday. Follow @BruceCiskie on Twitter for the other stuff that happens.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Game 23: UMD at Denver
DENVER -- Greetings from the Mile High City on a stunningly awesome day. Temps pushing the 60s and no mentionable threat of precipitation. Or cloud cover.
This is what people like me adore about Denver. Latter part of January and it's almost shorts weather, yet when you go walking along trails in the city, you can still find snow cover in areas that don't get much sun.
Anyway, there is a game of significance for UMD Saturday night. The Bulldogs absolutely need three points out of this weekend. It's not about the PairWise, because UMD is far from out of it there. It's not about the league title, because that ship left port already. It's not about home ice, because UMD will remain at least in striking distance of a home ice spot even with a loss in this game.
It's just time. The Bulldogs have played seven teams currently ranked ahead of them in the PairWise (which I only looked at for the purposes of this exercise because dammit it's only January and it's not time yet *pounds fist on hotel desk because this hotel actually provides a desk*). Those seven opponents account for 15 of UMD's 22 games so far.
UMD's record in those 15 games? 3-8-4, with no wins in ten games since Oct. 30 (UMass-Lowell).
No forward changes for UMD in the rematch, which isn't surprising, because who would you take out after Friday's game? There are changes elsewhere.
First off, senior goalie Matt McNeely gets his first start of the season. It'll be just his second appearance (he played the third period of the Halloween night loss to UMass-Lowell) of the season, and his first start since a 6-3 win over Northern Michigan last Feb. 7. His last go before that was possibly his best start in a UMD uniform. McNeely made 31 saves as the Bulldogs beat Minnesota 2-1 at the North Star College Cup, one year ago Sunday (Jan. 24, 2015).
Kasimir Kaskisuo started every game this season prior to this one, and as of this writing I'm of the belief it isn't a health-related move to get McNeely this start.
Also, junior defenseman Carson Soucy is back after a bout with something that kept him at the hotel on Friday night. Junior Brenden Kotyk will be scratched to make room. UMD's blue line was exploited a bit on Friday, I thought, and based on the chart you'll see below, the coaches may think so, too. I don't know that the pairings you see will be permanent, but what it does is create balance across the blue line pairs. UMD doesn't get the choice of matchup when on the road, and having all the top four defensemen together creates a third pair that can be exposed as a matchup problem against guys like, say, Danton Heinen.
It's why "one-line" teams will sometimes break up that top line on the road. They'll talk about how it creates balance, and it's sometimes true, but the other upshot is it makes those top players harder to check defensively. UMD doesn't have that problem up front right now, but having Andy Welinski and Neal Pionk paired together when Soucy was out put quite a bit of pressure on the other four to get the job done against Heinen's line, and that clearly didn't happen to the extent that was necessary.
We'll see what head coach Scott Sandelin has to say about that when I meet with him about 90 minutes before faceoff. Follow Twitter for more updates and discussion (@BruceCiskie) and #ListenToTheRadio.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
Welinski - Molenaar
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Pionk
McNeely - Kaskisuo
DU
Moore - Gambrell - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Terry
Lukosevicius - Levin - Staub
Arnold - Marcinew - O'Connor
Hammond - Zajac
Butcher - Hillman
VanVoorhis - Plant
Cowley - Jaillet - Ogard
This is what people like me adore about Denver. Latter part of January and it's almost shorts weather, yet when you go walking along trails in the city, you can still find snow cover in areas that don't get much sun.
Anyway, there is a game of significance for UMD Saturday night. The Bulldogs absolutely need three points out of this weekend. It's not about the PairWise, because UMD is far from out of it there. It's not about the league title, because that ship left port already. It's not about home ice, because UMD will remain at least in striking distance of a home ice spot even with a loss in this game.
It's just time. The Bulldogs have played seven teams currently ranked ahead of them in the PairWise (which I only looked at for the purposes of this exercise because dammit it's only January and it's not time yet *pounds fist on hotel desk because this hotel actually provides a desk*). Those seven opponents account for 15 of UMD's 22 games so far.
UMD's record in those 15 games? 3-8-4, with no wins in ten games since Oct. 30 (UMass-Lowell).
No forward changes for UMD in the rematch, which isn't surprising, because who would you take out after Friday's game? There are changes elsewhere.
First off, senior goalie Matt McNeely gets his first start of the season. It'll be just his second appearance (he played the third period of the Halloween night loss to UMass-Lowell) of the season, and his first start since a 6-3 win over Northern Michigan last Feb. 7. His last go before that was possibly his best start in a UMD uniform. McNeely made 31 saves as the Bulldogs beat Minnesota 2-1 at the North Star College Cup, one year ago Sunday (Jan. 24, 2015).
Kasimir Kaskisuo started every game this season prior to this one, and as of this writing I'm of the belief it isn't a health-related move to get McNeely this start.
Also, junior defenseman Carson Soucy is back after a bout with something that kept him at the hotel on Friday night. Junior Brenden Kotyk will be scratched to make room. UMD's blue line was exploited a bit on Friday, I thought, and based on the chart you'll see below, the coaches may think so, too. I don't know that the pairings you see will be permanent, but what it does is create balance across the blue line pairs. UMD doesn't get the choice of matchup when on the road, and having all the top four defensemen together creates a third pair that can be exposed as a matchup problem against guys like, say, Danton Heinen.
It's why "one-line" teams will sometimes break up that top line on the road. They'll talk about how it creates balance, and it's sometimes true, but the other upshot is it makes those top players harder to check defensively. UMD doesn't have that problem up front right now, but having Andy Welinski and Neal Pionk paired together when Soucy was out put quite a bit of pressure on the other four to get the job done against Heinen's line, and that clearly didn't happen to the extent that was necessary.
We'll see what head coach Scott Sandelin has to say about that when I meet with him about 90 minutes before faceoff. Follow Twitter for more updates and discussion (@BruceCiskie) and #ListenToTheRadio.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
Welinski - Molenaar
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Pionk
McNeely - Kaskisuo
DU
Moore - Gambrell - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Terry
Lukosevicius - Levin - Staub
Arnold - Marcinew - O'Connor
Hammond - Zajac
Butcher - Hillman
VanVoorhis - Plant
Cowley - Jaillet - Ogard
Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: Bulldogs Can't Hold Two-Goal Lead, Fall in Series Opener
DENVER -- Boy, you probably couldn't have scripted a better start for UMD Friday night in Denver.
By the 6:13 mark of the first period, UMD had a 2-0 lead and appeared to be rolling. Even in the subsequent half-dozen or so minutes, the Bulldogs looked to be in complete control of the affair.
Problem: That still left around 48 minutes of hockey to be played.
Denver rallied, and had the game tied 2-2 before the first period ended. Danton Heinen's second of the game came with just a bit less than seven minutes remaining in the second, and that was enough to give Denver a 3-2 win here Friday.
Honestly, I'd love to sit here and nit-pick the things that UMD didn't do well in the game. There were a few. I thought the Bulldogs were not sharp in their defensive zone, and DU exploited it at times. Breakouts weren't always crisp, and the Bulldogs looked like they had troubles with DU's forecheck, which we all know is very good.
After starting hot in the faceoff circle, things went badly for UMD from about the 12-minute mark of the first on. Denver ended up winning 42 of 70 draws on a night full of stoppages, including taking 14 of 20 in the third period. The large number of stoppages of play gave Denver a chance to further exploit the absence of UMD junior Carson Soucy (illness) on the blue line by getting favorable matchups against Heinen's line. As a result, Heinen led DU with five shots on goal, including four in the second period.
Finally, when UMD took a 2-0 lead, DU replaced goalie Tanner Jaillet (five saves on seven shots) with Evan Cowley. Despite watching Cowley fight the puck for most of the first period, UMD couldn't get enough bodies to the net to make him pay for it, which combined with flat-out missed opportunities allowed Cowley to settle in and DU to surge back into the game.
Cowley made 39 saves and earned star of the night status, but none of the 39 were of the "How did he do that?" variety, at least that I can recall. It's a flimsy narrative to go on, because it's not like we're keeping a statistic of "holy crap" saves a goalie makes in a game. If we did, it would be more subjective than scoring chances. But it was my feeling -- perched in the press box, naturally, where everything looks nice and easy -- that UMD's net drive in the last 48 minutes wasn't quite as good as it was in the first 12.
Of course, part of that is Denver upping the intensity level on its end. They've got guys with scholarships and pro aspirations and pride, and Heinen brought it after his coach, Jim Montgomery, was somewhat critical of him in our conversation this week. Montgomery said Heinen was "putting too much pressure on himself," to the point where the coach said his star sophomore was so desperate to score goals he was "cheating" on his defensive responsibilities and extending shifts and getting caught on the ice too long. If Montgomery will say those things to the opposition's radio guy, I have to think he was just as open -- if not more -- to the player.
He got what he was looking for out of Heinen Friday night. He scored twice, linemate Trevor Moore had two assists, and DU ran its unbeaten streak to seven.
UMD fell to 8-2-2 when scoring first, but the Bulldogs are 1-8-3 when failing to score at least three goals. Oh, and while the power play looked good at times over two chances, it netted zero goals in those chances and now sits at no goals in 23 chances going back to Dec. 11. In all, the power play has scored in just eight of UMD's 22 games this season.
By no means was this a bad performance by UMD. But it's becoming like Groundhog Day for this team. Do a lot of good things, but not quite enough. There's still, believe it or not, a lot of time to get things righted. I don't know how that happens, but the talent's in place, the character's in place, and the coaching is definitely in place.
Weird night in the NCHC. Four of the eight starting goalies were pulled, including both in the Colorado College-North Dakota game. There, UND jumped to a 4-0 lead and chased CC starter Tyler Marble. But on the way back to a tie game and eventually a 5-4 lead, CC chased UND starter Cam Johnson. Rhett Gardner's second of the game came in the final minute and tied the game for North Dakota, and it stayed tied through five-on-five and three-on-three overtime before UND got a shootout goal for the extra NCHC standings point. Hunter Fejes had a four-point night for the Tigers, while Luke Johnson added two goals for the Fighting Hawks.
Also getting a hook from his start was Western Michigan goalie Lukas Hafner, who allowed four goals on 11 shots in St. Cloud. Backup Trevor Gorsuch conceded four more on 20 shots as the Huskies blasted the Broncos 8-2. Joey Benik scored once and had four assists, while Patrick Newell had two goals as part of a three-point night.
Miami went into Baxter Arena and upset Omaha 3-1. Jay Williams made 27 saves and Matthew Caito scored the winner on a power play with 2:03 left after UNO was called for too many men on the ice. Kevin Morris iced Miami's victory with a late empty-netter.
By the 6:13 mark of the first period, UMD had a 2-0 lead and appeared to be rolling. Even in the subsequent half-dozen or so minutes, the Bulldogs looked to be in complete control of the affair.
Problem: That still left around 48 minutes of hockey to be played.
Denver rallied, and had the game tied 2-2 before the first period ended. Danton Heinen's second of the game came with just a bit less than seven minutes remaining in the second, and that was enough to give Denver a 3-2 win here Friday.
Honestly, I'd love to sit here and nit-pick the things that UMD didn't do well in the game. There were a few. I thought the Bulldogs were not sharp in their defensive zone, and DU exploited it at times. Breakouts weren't always crisp, and the Bulldogs looked like they had troubles with DU's forecheck, which we all know is very good.
After starting hot in the faceoff circle, things went badly for UMD from about the 12-minute mark of the first on. Denver ended up winning 42 of 70 draws on a night full of stoppages, including taking 14 of 20 in the third period. The large number of stoppages of play gave Denver a chance to further exploit the absence of UMD junior Carson Soucy (illness) on the blue line by getting favorable matchups against Heinen's line. As a result, Heinen led DU with five shots on goal, including four in the second period.
Finally, when UMD took a 2-0 lead, DU replaced goalie Tanner Jaillet (five saves on seven shots) with Evan Cowley. Despite watching Cowley fight the puck for most of the first period, UMD couldn't get enough bodies to the net to make him pay for it, which combined with flat-out missed opportunities allowed Cowley to settle in and DU to surge back into the game.
Cowley made 39 saves and earned star of the night status, but none of the 39 were of the "How did he do that?" variety, at least that I can recall. It's a flimsy narrative to go on, because it's not like we're keeping a statistic of "holy crap" saves a goalie makes in a game. If we did, it would be more subjective than scoring chances. But it was my feeling -- perched in the press box, naturally, where everything looks nice and easy -- that UMD's net drive in the last 48 minutes wasn't quite as good as it was in the first 12.
Of course, part of that is Denver upping the intensity level on its end. They've got guys with scholarships and pro aspirations and pride, and Heinen brought it after his coach, Jim Montgomery, was somewhat critical of him in our conversation this week. Montgomery said Heinen was "putting too much pressure on himself," to the point where the coach said his star sophomore was so desperate to score goals he was "cheating" on his defensive responsibilities and extending shifts and getting caught on the ice too long. If Montgomery will say those things to the opposition's radio guy, I have to think he was just as open -- if not more -- to the player.
He got what he was looking for out of Heinen Friday night. He scored twice, linemate Trevor Moore had two assists, and DU ran its unbeaten streak to seven.
UMD fell to 8-2-2 when scoring first, but the Bulldogs are 1-8-3 when failing to score at least three goals. Oh, and while the power play looked good at times over two chances, it netted zero goals in those chances and now sits at no goals in 23 chances going back to Dec. 11. In all, the power play has scored in just eight of UMD's 22 games this season.
By no means was this a bad performance by UMD. But it's becoming like Groundhog Day for this team. Do a lot of good things, but not quite enough. There's still, believe it or not, a lot of time to get things righted. I don't know how that happens, but the talent's in place, the character's in place, and the coaching is definitely in place.
******
Weird night in the NCHC. Four of the eight starting goalies were pulled, including both in the Colorado College-North Dakota game. There, UND jumped to a 4-0 lead and chased CC starter Tyler Marble. But on the way back to a tie game and eventually a 5-4 lead, CC chased UND starter Cam Johnson. Rhett Gardner's second of the game came in the final minute and tied the game for North Dakota, and it stayed tied through five-on-five and three-on-three overtime before UND got a shootout goal for the extra NCHC standings point. Hunter Fejes had a four-point night for the Tigers, while Luke Johnson added two goals for the Fighting Hawks.
Also getting a hook from his start was Western Michigan goalie Lukas Hafner, who allowed four goals on 11 shots in St. Cloud. Backup Trevor Gorsuch conceded four more on 20 shots as the Huskies blasted the Broncos 8-2. Joey Benik scored once and had four assists, while Patrick Newell had two goals as part of a three-point night.
Miami went into Baxter Arena and upset Omaha 3-1. Jay Williams made 27 saves and Matthew Caito scored the winner on a power play with 2:03 left after UNO was called for too many men on the ice. Kevin Morris iced Miami's victory with a late empty-netter.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Game 22: UMD at Denver
DENVER -- No question it's "go time" now for UMD. The Bulldogs are stuck at the .500 mark overall and desperately in need of NCHC points to stay afloat in the race for home ice.
It won't be easy in the series opener. Junior Carson Soucy, one of the team's top blue-liners without question, will not play Friday. Senior Willie Corrin will work with Willie Raskob on the second pair, while Dan Molenaar and Brenden Kotyk comprise the third pair for the game.
This is early, because both teams have tweeted their line charts for the game. I'll have access to UMD coach Scott Sandelin at around 7pm Central time and hope to get more insight as to the nature of Soucy's absence. To my knowledge, he didn't miss any time in practice this week, but the team has skated twice now since we got to Denver, and there's also the fact it's virus season (I've had this crud for over a week and I know a couple people who had it for close to two weeks ... it isn't fun). So he's out for this game, and I'm guessing he's injured or sick. I'm a genius, I know. At this point, I have no reason to think this is a long-term concern, so we'll try to see what's up. Follow me on Twitter (@BruceCiskie) for the latest information, or #ListenToTheRadio starting at 8pm Central (92.1 The Fan, The Red Rock Radio Bulldog Sports Network, or iHeartRadio by searching for 92.1 The Fan).
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
Welinski - Pionk
Corrin - Raskob
Molenaar - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Gambrell - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Terry
Romig - Levin - Staub
Arnold - Marcinew - O'Connor
Hammond - Zajac
Butcher - Hillman
VanVoorhis - Plant
Jaillet - Cowley - Ogard
It won't be easy in the series opener. Junior Carson Soucy, one of the team's top blue-liners without question, will not play Friday. Senior Willie Corrin will work with Willie Raskob on the second pair, while Dan Molenaar and Brenden Kotyk comprise the third pair for the game.
This is early, because both teams have tweeted their line charts for the game. I'll have access to UMD coach Scott Sandelin at around 7pm Central time and hope to get more insight as to the nature of Soucy's absence. To my knowledge, he didn't miss any time in practice this week, but the team has skated twice now since we got to Denver, and there's also the fact it's virus season (I've had this crud for over a week and I know a couple people who had it for close to two weeks ... it isn't fun). So he's out for this game, and I'm guessing he's injured or sick. I'm a genius, I know. At this point, I have no reason to think this is a long-term concern, so we'll try to see what's up. Follow me on Twitter (@BruceCiskie) for the latest information, or #ListenToTheRadio starting at 8pm Central (92.1 The Fan, The Red Rock Radio Bulldog Sports Network, or iHeartRadio by searching for 92.1 The Fan).
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Young (Blake) - Toninato - Iafallo
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Johnson - Decowski - Mackay
Sampair - Spurrell - Young (Austyn)
Welinski - Pionk
Corrin - Raskob
Molenaar - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Gambrell - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Terry
Romig - Levin - Staub
Arnold - Marcinew - O'Connor
Hammond - Zajac
Butcher - Hillman
VanVoorhis - Plant
Jaillet - Cowley - Ogard
Thursday, January 21, 2016
'Road Warriors' Need to Rekindle Magic Away From Duluth
DENVER -- Count Duluth News Tribune scribe Matt Wellens and me as probably the only members of the media who have descended on Denver for something other than the AFC Championship Game Sunday.
Instead, we'll be at Magness Arena for a key two-game NCHC series between UMD and Denver. The No. 15 Pioneers lead fourth-place and 19th-ranked UMD by one point in the NCHC standings, but DU has two games in hand that the Pioneers will be able to take advantage of over the next three weekends. UMD has a non-conference series and a bye mixed in there, so this is one of just two chances for the Bulldogs to gain league points before the stretch run starts with a Feb. 19 game at North Dakota.
The Bulldogs have prided themselves on being "road warriors" in recent years.
No, not them.
Since the NCHC formed for the 2013-14 season, UMD is 18-11-1 in league games away from home, including 3-2-1 this year, and 3-0-1 in the last four (goal differential is 17-3 in those games). Over the same stretch of time, UMD is 10-15-7 in NCHC home games, including 2-4-2 this year, and 0-3-1 in the last four (outscored 10-2 and shut out twice).
And, no, no one really knows why.
"We really haven't performed extremely well at home," head coach Scott Sandelin said this week. "It's unfortunate, because that's a building that we need to take advantage of.
"For whatever reason, we've been a much more consistent team on the road. The results have been much better on the road than at home. Somehow, we have to continue that, and find a way to be a better team at home."
"I think we're a super close team," senior Austin Farley said. "Spending time on and off the ice, you get away from just being in Duluth. Playing in other people's buildings, with other fans, it's fun to go out there and play against them."
"When we go on the road, we play that hard-nosed hockey," senior Cal Decowski said. "We're ready for a battle in other teams' buildings. I think coming in with that mentality, trying to be road warriors really helps."
Decowski might be on to something, but I wish it was easy to bottle up so UMD could use it at home, too. Whether there should be or not, it's undeniable that there's a different mentality that goes along with playing on the road. And in recent years, the Bulldogs have played some of their best hockey when backed against a wall and sent on the road.
--> I know it was "just against Colorado College," but UMD took a five-game unbeaten streak on the road the weekend before Thanksgiving and swept the Tigers by an 11-0 aggregate.
--> Armed with an up-and-down 4-4 record, UMD went to St. Cloud Nov. 7-8, 2014, and took down the Huskies in two straight games, sweeping at the National Hockey Center for the first time.
--> Losers of four straight and threatened with a first-round road trip in the NCHC playoffs, UMD won twice at Miami Feb. 28-March 1, 2013, and eventually earned home-ice two weeks later. We won't talk about what happened that weekend.
There are a myriad of examples of UMD getting the job done on the road, and that better be the case with this team. At 8-8-5 after last weekend's loss and tie against St. Cloud State, the Bulldogs can ill afford to miss many more chances to earn points. Screw the league title, now home ice is very much up in the air.
Maybe there's no better place to go than Denver. Going back to the 2003-2004 season, UMD has played seven regular-season series at Magness Arena. In those 14 games, the Bulldogs are 7-6-1, including 2-1-1 in the last four meetings, a span of time that actually takes us back to the 2011-12 season (UMD didn't go to Denver, somehow, for a full two regular seasons after that).
I don't know much, but I do know this: Three of UMD's next four NCHC series are on the road, and they're against ranked opponents ahead of them in the league standings (Denver, North Dakota, St. Cloud State). This team is good enough to go 4-2 in those six games, and if that happens, and UMD can properly handle business at home, the Bulldogs will be at home to start the NCHC playoffs.
If there was ever a time to get those road fires burning again, now is it.
******
Nov. 13's game between these two teams in Duluth might still stand as UMD's worst 60-minute performance of the season. The Bulldogs had very little going that night, outside of the first ten minutes or so, and DU got a power-play goal in the first, another in the second, and then a transition goal after that, for a 3-0 win. Goalie Evan Cowley only had to stop 27 shots for the shutout, and a practically listless UMD team made it perhaps the easiest shutout of his career.
(Last Friday against St. Cloud State was bad, but I felt UMD was more competitive throughout the game. The oh-fer on seven power plays makes that game look worse than it probably was five-on-five.)
But that next game against the Pioneers showed some of the potential -- and frustrations -- of this Bulldog team. UMD outshot Denver, a really good team, by a 46-20 margin that was the worst for Denver in roughly two full seasons. Of course, DU goalie Tanner Jaillet stood on his head, and the Bulldogs only got one goal in regulation that night before getting the extra point with a Tony Cameranesi three-on-three tally.
DU struggled through the first half, losing four straight (outscored 20-5 by North Dakota and St. Cloud State) to limp into the break. The Pioneers have found their stride out of Christmas, however. Denver is 3-0-3 since break, with two home ties against Notre Dame, a road sweep at Omaha (UNO's first two losses at Baxter Arena), and last weekend's win and tie against Western Michigan.
"They're playing much, much better," Sandelin said of DU. "They look like a much different team than they did before break."
"Our details and our habits, our preparation in practice has been better," coach Jim Montgomery said this week. "That's allowed us to have more puck possession time in games."
Jaillet has started all six games after rotating with Cowley in the first half.
"The way he's matured, how vocal he is in the defensive zone and on breakouts," Montgomery said. "He's taken another step as far as ownership on our team."
Jaillet, by the way, has a .938 save percentage over those six games, giving him a .922 for the season.
I talked in my Monday blog about how similar these teams are. Needless to say, both coaches are aware of this, and they agree special teams will be a huge determining factor in the weekend.
"The seasons we've had, lack of production five on five, we're almost mirror images," Montgomery said. "For us, the inconsistency on the power play has hurt our ability to win games."
UMD has spent a lot of time working on the power play this week. There have been personnel changes on the units. The players and coaches know this streak of 22 straight scoreless power plays has to end. And as it becomes harder and harder to score five-on-five, the urgency only ramps up for the power play to produce.
For those who have heard my occasional whining about the return of obstruction in college hockey (credit to Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press for really getting the ball rolling on this issue), the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee -- headed by Michigan State coach Tom Anastos and Big Ten/NCAA Supervisor of Officials Steve Piotrowski -- released a four-page memo this month addressing, among other things, interference.
The key part of the memo is this:
You want to know why scoring is down? Yeah, goalies and better-coached defenses are making an impact. So are uncalled rules infractions. Either more power plays would come from consistent enforcement, which should help increase scoring, or teams will adjust to existing rules if enforced, and there will be more room to make plays as a result of that.
As I said on KFAN a couple weeks ago, don't make new rules. Properly call the ones that exist. You'll see a difference.
Instead, we'll be at Magness Arena for a key two-game NCHC series between UMD and Denver. The No. 15 Pioneers lead fourth-place and 19th-ranked UMD by one point in the NCHC standings, but DU has two games in hand that the Pioneers will be able to take advantage of over the next three weekends. UMD has a non-conference series and a bye mixed in there, so this is one of just two chances for the Bulldogs to gain league points before the stretch run starts with a Feb. 19 game at North Dakota.
The Bulldogs have prided themselves on being "road warriors" in recent years.
No, not them.
Since the NCHC formed for the 2013-14 season, UMD is 18-11-1 in league games away from home, including 3-2-1 this year, and 3-0-1 in the last four (goal differential is 17-3 in those games). Over the same stretch of time, UMD is 10-15-7 in NCHC home games, including 2-4-2 this year, and 0-3-1 in the last four (outscored 10-2 and shut out twice).
And, no, no one really knows why.
"We really haven't performed extremely well at home," head coach Scott Sandelin said this week. "It's unfortunate, because that's a building that we need to take advantage of.
"For whatever reason, we've been a much more consistent team on the road. The results have been much better on the road than at home. Somehow, we have to continue that, and find a way to be a better team at home."
"I think we're a super close team," senior Austin Farley said. "Spending time on and off the ice, you get away from just being in Duluth. Playing in other people's buildings, with other fans, it's fun to go out there and play against them."
"When we go on the road, we play that hard-nosed hockey," senior Cal Decowski said. "We're ready for a battle in other teams' buildings. I think coming in with that mentality, trying to be road warriors really helps."
Decowski might be on to something, but I wish it was easy to bottle up so UMD could use it at home, too. Whether there should be or not, it's undeniable that there's a different mentality that goes along with playing on the road. And in recent years, the Bulldogs have played some of their best hockey when backed against a wall and sent on the road.
--> I know it was "just against Colorado College," but UMD took a five-game unbeaten streak on the road the weekend before Thanksgiving and swept the Tigers by an 11-0 aggregate.
--> Armed with an up-and-down 4-4 record, UMD went to St. Cloud Nov. 7-8, 2014, and took down the Huskies in two straight games, sweeping at the National Hockey Center for the first time.
--> Losers of four straight and threatened with a first-round road trip in the NCHC playoffs, UMD won twice at Miami Feb. 28-March 1, 2013, and eventually earned home-ice two weeks later. We won't talk about what happened that weekend.
There are a myriad of examples of UMD getting the job done on the road, and that better be the case with this team. At 8-8-5 after last weekend's loss and tie against St. Cloud State, the Bulldogs can ill afford to miss many more chances to earn points. Screw the league title, now home ice is very much up in the air.
Maybe there's no better place to go than Denver. Going back to the 2003-2004 season, UMD has played seven regular-season series at Magness Arena. In those 14 games, the Bulldogs are 7-6-1, including 2-1-1 in the last four meetings, a span of time that actually takes us back to the 2011-12 season (UMD didn't go to Denver, somehow, for a full two regular seasons after that).
I don't know much, but I do know this: Three of UMD's next four NCHC series are on the road, and they're against ranked opponents ahead of them in the league standings (Denver, North Dakota, St. Cloud State). This team is good enough to go 4-2 in those six games, and if that happens, and UMD can properly handle business at home, the Bulldogs will be at home to start the NCHC playoffs.
If there was ever a time to get those road fires burning again, now is it.
******
Nov. 13's game between these two teams in Duluth might still stand as UMD's worst 60-minute performance of the season. The Bulldogs had very little going that night, outside of the first ten minutes or so, and DU got a power-play goal in the first, another in the second, and then a transition goal after that, for a 3-0 win. Goalie Evan Cowley only had to stop 27 shots for the shutout, and a practically listless UMD team made it perhaps the easiest shutout of his career.
(Last Friday against St. Cloud State was bad, but I felt UMD was more competitive throughout the game. The oh-fer on seven power plays makes that game look worse than it probably was five-on-five.)
But that next game against the Pioneers showed some of the potential -- and frustrations -- of this Bulldog team. UMD outshot Denver, a really good team, by a 46-20 margin that was the worst for Denver in roughly two full seasons. Of course, DU goalie Tanner Jaillet stood on his head, and the Bulldogs only got one goal in regulation that night before getting the extra point with a Tony Cameranesi three-on-three tally.
DU struggled through the first half, losing four straight (outscored 20-5 by North Dakota and St. Cloud State) to limp into the break. The Pioneers have found their stride out of Christmas, however. Denver is 3-0-3 since break, with two home ties against Notre Dame, a road sweep at Omaha (UNO's first two losses at Baxter Arena), and last weekend's win and tie against Western Michigan.
"They're playing much, much better," Sandelin said of DU. "They look like a much different team than they did before break."
"Our details and our habits, our preparation in practice has been better," coach Jim Montgomery said this week. "That's allowed us to have more puck possession time in games."
Jaillet has started all six games after rotating with Cowley in the first half.
"The way he's matured, how vocal he is in the defensive zone and on breakouts," Montgomery said. "He's taken another step as far as ownership on our team."
Jaillet, by the way, has a .938 save percentage over those six games, giving him a .922 for the season.
I talked in my Monday blog about how similar these teams are. Needless to say, both coaches are aware of this, and they agree special teams will be a huge determining factor in the weekend.
"The seasons we've had, lack of production five on five, we're almost mirror images," Montgomery said. "For us, the inconsistency on the power play has hurt our ability to win games."
UMD has spent a lot of time working on the power play this week. There have been personnel changes on the units. The players and coaches know this streak of 22 straight scoreless power plays has to end. And as it becomes harder and harder to score five-on-five, the urgency only ramps up for the power play to produce.
******
For those who have heard my occasional whining about the return of obstruction in college hockey (credit to Shane Frederick of the Mankato Free Press for really getting the ball rolling on this issue), the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee -- headed by Michigan State coach Tom Anastos and Big Ten/NCAA Supervisor of Officials Steve Piotrowski -- released a four-page memo this month addressing, among other things, interference.
The key part of the memo is this:
Time after time, we're seeing either late contact or a situation where the defending player doesn't just bump and release the attacking player. That's interference, even when a UMD guy does it.The committee’s consensus is that defenders should be allowed to engage/bump/contact an attacking player “immediately” after the puck is released on a dump in, but players are expected to release the attacker and pursue the puck or retreat following this initial contact. The same standard would be applied regardless of whether or not the attacking player was knocked down. However, it ultimately was decided that the ‘immediacy” of the contact continues to be a determination made by the officials on a case-by-case basis.
Therefore, as a reminder, immediate contact may be made against the attacking player who dumps the puck past a defender. The defender is obligated to release immediately so as not to be guilty of interference. The standard is no longer two seconds or two strides after releasing the puck. It should be noted that allowing offensive players more freedom here must not be taken as license to create collisions at higher speed.
You want to know why scoring is down? Yeah, goalies and better-coached defenses are making an impact. So are uncalled rules infractions. Either more power plays would come from consistent enforcement, which should help increase scoring, or teams will adjust to existing rules if enforced, and there will be more room to make plays as a result of that.
As I said on KFAN a couple weeks ago, don't make new rules. Properly call the ones that exist. You'll see a difference.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Monday Musings: Much Better Performance, Marginally Better Result as UMD Draws With St. Cloud State
There was no question in my mind that UMD would bring a much improved effort in Saturday's rematch against St. Cloud State. And I wasn't disappointed.
But despite outshooting a very good SCSU team 39-21, the Bulldogs were forced to settle for a 1-1 tie after Dominic Toninato's one-man rush paid off for UMD in the first period, but Charlie Lindgren shut every other Bulldog chance down.
At the other end, Kasimir Kaskisuo made a couple very nice saves, but SCSU tied it on a tip-in by Joey Benik in the second, and Patrick Russell got his team an extra NCHC standings point with a shot that went off Kaskisuo's glove and into the net during three-on-three overtime.
(I'm not going to rip Kaskisuo, who has a .923 save percentage and a goals against safely under 2.00 (1.87). If it weren't for him, this team isn't 8-8-5. Hell, it seems wrong to criticize him at all, but Matt Wellens was on-point after Saturday's game (read it here) with sentiments very similar to those we expressed on the air during Friday's loss. I don't need to pile on. Kas has higher expectations of himself than most of us would probably think is reasonable, and there's no doubt he's having a good year and will only get better as he gains experience and more knowledge of how the game is played at this level.)
In reality, goalies are as human as everyone else on the ice, and if you're expecting UMD to win that game 1-0 against a really good opponent after Toninato's tremendously tremendous (©Eddie Olczyk) individual effort, it's probably not fair. Simply put, a team with this much returning talent -- along with the improving young guys -- has to score more than two goals in a weekend and not put that kind of pressure on its goalie to be perfect in order to have a shot at the win.
In UMD's last nine home games, it is 2-5-2 while being outscored 22-19. If you remove the two wins (both over Western Michigan), that margin is 20-6. Six goals in seven games on home ice. That's not exactly optimal.
After Scott Sandelin said his team took "three or four too many" penalties on Friday, the Bulldogs took two on Saturday and killed both SCSU power plays. The Huskies were held to three shots in those man advantage opportunities, which is a good sign for the UMD kill. The Bulldogs did a good job defensively, blocking 21 of 51 SCSU shot attempts (Blake Young had five and Carson Soucy four).
Every UMD skater except Sammy Spurrell had at least one shot on goal (Karson Kuhlman led with seven). Overall, it was a much better effort.
Now, it's time to fix the results.
UMD is 1-1-2 since break. Sandelin has said it's "go time" for his team. And while the PairWise still shows UMD at 17th and very much within striking distance for an NCAA bid, the path is going to get more and more difficult the longer the Bulldogs struggle to score goals.
None of this is meant to be a downer on a good effort. UMD controlled the puck and the flow of the game for a large amount of 65 minutes against what I think is the best team we've faced this season.
(No disrespect at all to North Dakota and UMass-Lowell, both of which are very good teams. But SCSU is the most explosive team I've seen. The Huskies have four lines that are more than solid, and that defensive corps is -- while young -- almost as deep as North Dakota's. So SCSU is deeper at forward, comparable on defense, and Lindgren is far from a slouch in goal. The Huskies are for real, everyone. I see them as a very legit national title contender.)
But scoring will be an ongoing topic until it's remedied. If anything else, look at a weekend where Kaskisuo gave up two possibly regrettable goals in regulation time (out of the four he conceded), and imagine where UMD would have come out if it could score three goals a game, a number Sandelin has often mentioned.
There are a lot of notable scoring droughts involving the Bulldogs. By no means do these notes mean I don't think the individuals are playing well. It's not meant as a callout of them, but instead the glut of guys with long dry spells goes to show the problem at hand.
Austyn Young and Austin Farley haven't scored since Dec. 5 (six games). Adam Johnson is goalless since the same date (five games played). Kyle Osterberg went 12 games without a goal before suffering an upper-body injury Friday that kept him from playing Saturday. Andy Welinski has no goals since Oct. 30 (15 games). Jared Thomas was a healthy scratch Saturday and hasn't scored since Oct. 17 (17 games). Alex Iafallo has one empty-net goal and Karson Kuhlman no goals since Dec. 4 (seven games).
Team-wide, only Farley (ten), Toninato (eight), and Tony Cameranesi (seven) have more than a half-dozen goals. Only Farley (20), Cameranesi (19), and Andy Welinski (11) have more than ten points.
Again, a number of these guys are playing good hockey. Welinski and Neal Pionk have strung together some high-quality performances since being reunited on the blue line. I like how Osterberg had been playing since break and hopefully he won't be gone long. Johnson looked great last weekend after sitting out the Saturday game at Miami. Kuhlman, as I already mentioned, really stepped up Saturday and generated great chances, and even when his offensive game isn't great, Kuhlman's effort level and play without the puck is usually exemplary.
The offense is likely to keep sputtering, however, as long as the power play struggles. The Bulldogs haven't scored on the man advantage since Dec. 5, a run of 22 power plays in a row without a goal. Over that time, UMD has gone from 22 percent on the season down to 16.7 now.
The Bulldogs need to solve their power play woes in order to make a run in the second half. It's hard to assess the personnel changes UMD made ahead of Saturday's game with only one power play. While that didn't score or generate a shot on goal, the puck movement was good, and UMD did a better job getting into the offensive zone than it did Friday. But it's hard to get much out of one two-minute power play. Friday was bad, but the goalless run is somewhat deceiving. They had some very good looks against North Dakota, and I thought they did okay against Miami.
It's similar to the team's play five on five. Just need to find a way to bury more pucks, but I fully acknowledge it's much easier said than done.
A rematch with Denver awaits the Bulldogs this weekend. The Pioneers took four of six points in Duluth Nov. 13-14, including a 3-0 Friday win that likely still stands as UMD's shoddiest 60-minute performance of the season.
The Pioneers are unbeaten at 3-0-3 since break, including a sweep at Omaha Jan. 8-9 and a win and tie over this last weekend at home against Western Michigan. Goalie Tanner Jaillet has started all six games since break, allowing 11 goals in six games and posting a .939 save percentage.
Denver defenseman Will Butcher is maturing into a top-flight player at his position in college hockey. He scored twice in the Jan. 8 3-0 win over Omaha and continues to play big minutes on the DU blue line. With sophomore Danton Heinen struggling a bit to score goals, freshman Dylan Gambrell has picked up some of the slack and leads the Pioneers with 21 points. Matt Marcinew leads in goals with seven.
DU's power play is two tenths of a percentage point better than UMD (16.9 to 16.7), while the UMD kill is better than DU's by a slightly larger margin (84.4 to 83.8).
These are similar teams in structure and style, and this should be an enjoyable weekend in a football-mad city (Denver hosts the AFC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon). Clearly, with how hard it is to score five-on-five, it'll come down to who can score on special teams. In the Nov. 13 win in Duluth, Denver scored two power play goals for a 2-0 lead in a game where not much was going on otherwise.
But despite outshooting a very good SCSU team 39-21, the Bulldogs were forced to settle for a 1-1 tie after Dominic Toninato's one-man rush paid off for UMD in the first period, but Charlie Lindgren shut every other Bulldog chance down.
At the other end, Kasimir Kaskisuo made a couple very nice saves, but SCSU tied it on a tip-in by Joey Benik in the second, and Patrick Russell got his team an extra NCHC standings point with a shot that went off Kaskisuo's glove and into the net during three-on-three overtime.
(I'm not going to rip Kaskisuo, who has a .923 save percentage and a goals against safely under 2.00 (1.87). If it weren't for him, this team isn't 8-8-5. Hell, it seems wrong to criticize him at all, but Matt Wellens was on-point after Saturday's game (read it here) with sentiments very similar to those we expressed on the air during Friday's loss. I don't need to pile on. Kas has higher expectations of himself than most of us would probably think is reasonable, and there's no doubt he's having a good year and will only get better as he gains experience and more knowledge of how the game is played at this level.)
In reality, goalies are as human as everyone else on the ice, and if you're expecting UMD to win that game 1-0 against a really good opponent after Toninato's tremendously tremendous (©Eddie Olczyk) individual effort, it's probably not fair. Simply put, a team with this much returning talent -- along with the improving young guys -- has to score more than two goals in a weekend and not put that kind of pressure on its goalie to be perfect in order to have a shot at the win.
In UMD's last nine home games, it is 2-5-2 while being outscored 22-19. If you remove the two wins (both over Western Michigan), that margin is 20-6. Six goals in seven games on home ice. That's not exactly optimal.
After Scott Sandelin said his team took "three or four too many" penalties on Friday, the Bulldogs took two on Saturday and killed both SCSU power plays. The Huskies were held to three shots in those man advantage opportunities, which is a good sign for the UMD kill. The Bulldogs did a good job defensively, blocking 21 of 51 SCSU shot attempts (Blake Young had five and Carson Soucy four).
Every UMD skater except Sammy Spurrell had at least one shot on goal (Karson Kuhlman led with seven). Overall, it was a much better effort.
Now, it's time to fix the results.
UMD is 1-1-2 since break. Sandelin has said it's "go time" for his team. And while the PairWise still shows UMD at 17th and very much within striking distance for an NCAA bid, the path is going to get more and more difficult the longer the Bulldogs struggle to score goals.
******
None of this is meant to be a downer on a good effort. UMD controlled the puck and the flow of the game for a large amount of 65 minutes against what I think is the best team we've faced this season.
(No disrespect at all to North Dakota and UMass-Lowell, both of which are very good teams. But SCSU is the most explosive team I've seen. The Huskies have four lines that are more than solid, and that defensive corps is -- while young -- almost as deep as North Dakota's. So SCSU is deeper at forward, comparable on defense, and Lindgren is far from a slouch in goal. The Huskies are for real, everyone. I see them as a very legit national title contender.)
But scoring will be an ongoing topic until it's remedied. If anything else, look at a weekend where Kaskisuo gave up two possibly regrettable goals in regulation time (out of the four he conceded), and imagine where UMD would have come out if it could score three goals a game, a number Sandelin has often mentioned.
There are a lot of notable scoring droughts involving the Bulldogs. By no means do these notes mean I don't think the individuals are playing well. It's not meant as a callout of them, but instead the glut of guys with long dry spells goes to show the problem at hand.
Austyn Young and Austin Farley haven't scored since Dec. 5 (six games). Adam Johnson is goalless since the same date (five games played). Kyle Osterberg went 12 games without a goal before suffering an upper-body injury Friday that kept him from playing Saturday. Andy Welinski has no goals since Oct. 30 (15 games). Jared Thomas was a healthy scratch Saturday and hasn't scored since Oct. 17 (17 games). Alex Iafallo has one empty-net goal and Karson Kuhlman no goals since Dec. 4 (seven games).
Team-wide, only Farley (ten), Toninato (eight), and Tony Cameranesi (seven) have more than a half-dozen goals. Only Farley (20), Cameranesi (19), and Andy Welinski (11) have more than ten points.
Again, a number of these guys are playing good hockey. Welinski and Neal Pionk have strung together some high-quality performances since being reunited on the blue line. I like how Osterberg had been playing since break and hopefully he won't be gone long. Johnson looked great last weekend after sitting out the Saturday game at Miami. Kuhlman, as I already mentioned, really stepped up Saturday and generated great chances, and even when his offensive game isn't great, Kuhlman's effort level and play without the puck is usually exemplary.
The offense is likely to keep sputtering, however, as long as the power play struggles. The Bulldogs haven't scored on the man advantage since Dec. 5, a run of 22 power plays in a row without a goal. Over that time, UMD has gone from 22 percent on the season down to 16.7 now.
The Bulldogs need to solve their power play woes in order to make a run in the second half. It's hard to assess the personnel changes UMD made ahead of Saturday's game with only one power play. While that didn't score or generate a shot on goal, the puck movement was good, and UMD did a better job getting into the offensive zone than it did Friday. But it's hard to get much out of one two-minute power play. Friday was bad, but the goalless run is somewhat deceiving. They had some very good looks against North Dakota, and I thought they did okay against Miami.
It's similar to the team's play five on five. Just need to find a way to bury more pucks, but I fully acknowledge it's much easier said than done.
******
A rematch with Denver awaits the Bulldogs this weekend. The Pioneers took four of six points in Duluth Nov. 13-14, including a 3-0 Friday win that likely still stands as UMD's shoddiest 60-minute performance of the season.
The Pioneers are unbeaten at 3-0-3 since break, including a sweep at Omaha Jan. 8-9 and a win and tie over this last weekend at home against Western Michigan. Goalie Tanner Jaillet has started all six games since break, allowing 11 goals in six games and posting a .939 save percentage.
Denver defenseman Will Butcher is maturing into a top-flight player at his position in college hockey. He scored twice in the Jan. 8 3-0 win over Omaha and continues to play big minutes on the DU blue line. With sophomore Danton Heinen struggling a bit to score goals, freshman Dylan Gambrell has picked up some of the slack and leads the Pioneers with 21 points. Matt Marcinew leads in goals with seven.
DU's power play is two tenths of a percentage point better than UMD (16.9 to 16.7), while the UMD kill is better than DU's by a slightly larger margin (84.4 to 83.8).
These are similar teams in structure and style, and this should be an enjoyable weekend in a football-mad city (Denver hosts the AFC Championship Game on Sunday afternoon). Clearly, with how hard it is to score five-on-five, it'll come down to who can score on special teams. In the Nov. 13 win in Duluth, Denver scored two power play goals for a 2-0 lead in a game where not much was going on otherwise.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Game 11: Denver at UMD
Five losses in a row is not optimal. No need to dissect the importance of this affair.
Lines?
Lines.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Johnson
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Osterberg - Thomas - Young (Austyn)
Young (Blake) - Decowski - Sampair
Corrin - Welinski
Soucy - Raskob
McCormack - Pionk
Kaskisuo - McNeely - Deery
DU
Levin - Shore - Terry
Moore - Marcinew - Lukosevicius
Heinen - Gambrell - O'Connor
Arnold - Janssen - Staub
Hammond - Zajac
Plant - Butcher
Hillman - Neville
Jaillet - Cowley
Lines?
Lines.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Johnson
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Osterberg - Thomas - Young (Austyn)
Young (Blake) - Decowski - Sampair
Corrin - Welinski
Soucy - Raskob
McCormack - Pionk
Kaskisuo - McNeely - Deery
DU
Levin - Shore - Terry
Moore - Marcinew - Lukosevicius
Heinen - Gambrell - O'Connor
Arnold - Janssen - Staub
Hammond - Zajac
Plant - Butcher
Hillman - Neville
Jaillet - Cowley
Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: Lackluster Effort, Worse Execution Lead to Fourth Straight Loss
From the start Friday night, it didn't look like UMD had "it" against Denver.
Passing was off, the net drive was non-existent, and there wasn't enough physicality*.
(* - outside of an early boarding penalty against Charlie Sampair. I know some disagree, but I thought it was a dumb penalty, and Sampair was lucky the player he hit -- Adam Plant -- was only a foot or so from the boards, or it could have been an early shower for Chuck.)
UMD paid for these things with a 3-0 loss. The Bulldogs have now dropped four games in a row, and possibly worse, have not led for one second in any of the four games. Worse, the games have only been tied for 43 minutes and 29 seconds out of a possible 240 minutes. That's nearly 200 minutes (196:31, to be precise), or seven full periods, of playing catch-up hockey.
To put that in perspective, UMD trailed for 35:20 in its first six games, a total of 370 minutes when you count the two overtimes against Notre Dame.
Not hard to see why the Bulldogs are struggling. It starts with scoring the first goal, something that seems so simple but has become oh so complicated for this team. UMD is 0-4-1 when conceding the first goal, and its only loss when scoring first came in the opener at Bemidji State, a team that by the way hasn't won since that night.
Denver freshman Jarid Lukosevicius scored two power play goals Friday, one about five minutes in, and one late in the second period. The former came after Sampair's penalty, and the latter on the third of three DU power plays in the second period. UMD was actually close to surviving a second period where nothing of any note really happened, but Lukosevicius and Grant Arnold scored 40 seconds apart for a 3-0 lead that broke UMD's back for the night, basically.
We've been preaching even-strength shots quite a bit, as it shows how UMD has been controlling possession in games. Going into Friday, the Bulldogs were outshooting opponents 25-17 per game at even strength. Friday, shots at even strength were 18-18.
UMD hadn't been a good faceoff team. Naturally, the Bulldogs won 29 of 47 draws on a night where little else went right.
The Bulldogs looked like a frustrated bunch late in Friday's game. If they can avoid getting frustrated Saturday, it could certainly help lead to a sharper performance. Teams tend to not play well when they're frustrated, because it leads to too much negative energy. Even anger can be spun into a positive in an athletic arena. Frustration can't.
Honestly, I don't have much else to say. Things aren't going well at the moment, and hopefully better things are in store in Saturday's series finale. What happened Friday was generally unacceptable, and I have a hard time imagining it will happen again Saturday.
That's all I have. Keep your chins up.
Passing was off, the net drive was non-existent, and there wasn't enough physicality*.
(* - outside of an early boarding penalty against Charlie Sampair. I know some disagree, but I thought it was a dumb penalty, and Sampair was lucky the player he hit -- Adam Plant -- was only a foot or so from the boards, or it could have been an early shower for Chuck.)
UMD paid for these things with a 3-0 loss. The Bulldogs have now dropped four games in a row, and possibly worse, have not led for one second in any of the four games. Worse, the games have only been tied for 43 minutes and 29 seconds out of a possible 240 minutes. That's nearly 200 minutes (196:31, to be precise), or seven full periods, of playing catch-up hockey.
To put that in perspective, UMD trailed for 35:20 in its first six games, a total of 370 minutes when you count the two overtimes against Notre Dame.
Not hard to see why the Bulldogs are struggling. It starts with scoring the first goal, something that seems so simple but has become oh so complicated for this team. UMD is 0-4-1 when conceding the first goal, and its only loss when scoring first came in the opener at Bemidji State, a team that by the way hasn't won since that night.
Denver freshman Jarid Lukosevicius scored two power play goals Friday, one about five minutes in, and one late in the second period. The former came after Sampair's penalty, and the latter on the third of three DU power plays in the second period. UMD was actually close to surviving a second period where nothing of any note really happened, but Lukosevicius and Grant Arnold scored 40 seconds apart for a 3-0 lead that broke UMD's back for the night, basically.
We've been preaching even-strength shots quite a bit, as it shows how UMD has been controlling possession in games. Going into Friday, the Bulldogs were outshooting opponents 25-17 per game at even strength. Friday, shots at even strength were 18-18.
UMD hadn't been a good faceoff team. Naturally, the Bulldogs won 29 of 47 draws on a night where little else went right.
The Bulldogs looked like a frustrated bunch late in Friday's game. If they can avoid getting frustrated Saturday, it could certainly help lead to a sharper performance. Teams tend to not play well when they're frustrated, because it leads to too much negative energy. Even anger can be spun into a positive in an athletic arena. Frustration can't.
Honestly, I don't have much else to say. Things aren't going well at the moment, and hopefully better things are in store in Saturday's series finale. What happened Friday was generally unacceptable, and I have a hard time imagining it will happen again Saturday.
That's all I have. Keep your chins up.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Game 10: Denver at UMD
UMD coaches and players have preached patience this week, to an extent. Bottom line, the series in Omaha was full of bad bounces and great UNO goaltending, and the shot totals show a dominant UMD effort where the Bulldogs deserved a better fate than they received.
We'll see if they can duplicate the effort and get a better result. If not, you Corsi people can go to hell. :)
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Kuhlman
Farley - Cameranesi - Young (Austyn)
Osterberg - Thomas - Johnson
Sampair - Decowski - Spurrell
Soucy - Welinski
Corrin - Pionk
Raskob - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely - Deery
DU
Levin - Shore - Terry
Moore - Marcinew - Lukosevicius
Heinen - Gambrell - O'Connor
Arnold - Janssen - Staub
Hammond - Zajac
Plant - Butcher
Hillman - Neville
Cowley - Jaillet
We'll see if they can duplicate the effort and get a better result. If not, you Corsi people can go to hell. :)
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Iafallo - Toninato - Kuhlman
Farley - Cameranesi - Young (Austyn)
Osterberg - Thomas - Johnson
Sampair - Decowski - Spurrell
Soucy - Welinski
Corrin - Pionk
Raskob - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely - Deery
DU
Levin - Shore - Terry
Moore - Marcinew - Lukosevicius
Heinen - Gambrell - O'Connor
Arnold - Janssen - Staub
Hammond - Zajac
Plant - Butcher
Hillman - Neville
Cowley - Jaillet
UMD Must Show Confidence Not Shaken by Omaha Sweep
No question the Omaha trip was a frustrating one for UMD. Call it a hot goalie, bad luck, ineffective finishing, or a combination of the three, but the Bulldogs scored four goals on 84 shots and were swept out of Baxter Arena by the Mavericks.
Instead of licking their wounds, UMD got together Monday and set out to move on as quickly as possible.
"I thought Scott Sandelin's speech to the team Monday was one of the best I've seen him give," assistant coach Brett Larson said. "When you go out and get 160 shot attempts to their 80, go out and score a couple power play goals, Grade-A chances are heavily in our favor, it's tough to be mad at you. We all hate losing, but it was hard to be mad at the group after the weekend."
Sandelin said multiple times Wednesday that the Bulldogs "did a lot of good things" against Omaha, "everything but score enough goals." Obviously, the return of senior forward Tony Cameranesi from a shoulder injury is going to help. But it's not the cure-all.
More than anything, UMD needs to keep doing what it did in Omaha, minus some puck management errors and defensive lapses. Even then, it's not fair to blame those factors by themselves. Over 120 minutes, it's just not realistic to expect mistake-free hockey. Errors -- mental and physical -- are going to happen. They're inevitable. Coaches make corrections and move on to the next game, where errors -- hopefully different ones -- will happen.
Driving home from Nebraska on Sunday, I have to admit being quite a bit peeved at the weekend result when we set off from our hotel near the arena. Even the announcer hates when UMD gets swept, after all. But by the time we pulled into our driveway, it was more disappointment about the result, because it is simply not fair to be disappointed by that effort. The effort was good, and there were many more positives than negatives to take from the series.
Larson, who was on a recruiting trip and not in Omaha (typically, one assistant goes with the team on a road trip, and the other will go somewhere to recruit), echoed those sentiments this week. He said the coaches got together to watch the video Monday and quickly realized they couldn't be mad about the players' effort.
"You can sit here and skirt it," Sandelin said. "You can sit here and try to go around it. You meet it head on. We did a lot of good things."
Sandelin wants more "moxie or patience" around the net, but otherwise not many adjustments from the Omaha effort.
Cameranesi has been skating, so his conditioning should be pretty solid. I don't expect him to take a lot of faceoffs initially, instead ceding that task to fellow senior Austyn Young, who will center a line with Austin Farley and Cameranesi. If that's how things start, it would open the door for Dominic Toninato and Alex Iafallo to reunite after two-plus games on different lines.
Nothing will likely change until UMD's shooting percentage does. The Bulldogs scored goals on 8.9 percent of their shots on goal last year, but are only shooting at a 6.9 percent clip in 2015-16. Toninato -- who scored 16 goals on 87 shots last year -- is shooting at half that percentage so far this year. Iafallo has one goal on 30 shots, Karson Kuhlman one on 24, Adam Johnson none on 24.
Willie Raskob's goal Saturday was his first in 24 shots on goal. Cameranesi's shooting percentage is down slightly so far this season, as is Jared Thomas'.
Did I mention UMD's shooting at a 6.9 percent clip right now? 6.9 percent!
These are, frankly, unsustainable shooting percentages. I'd say the same thing if the Bulldogs were shooting at a 17-plus percent clip, like Harvard is right now. Of course, they'd be averaging something like six goals a game with that shooting percentage, so let's be honest: If that were the case, we'd all be booking April flights to Tampa.
For UMD, there is something to be said for being a little smarter with the puck in the offensive zone, trying to work around the defense and make goalies more uncomfortable, but it was doing so many of those things in Omaha (especially on Friday) and getting nothing out of it.
I hate to blame luck, but a lot of it comes down to that. These players have generally proven themselves at this level. They simply aren't going to perform like this all year.
The opponent this weekend doesn't care about UMD's three-game losing streak. But don't think Denver coach Jim Montgomery has avoided the topic with his players. His team has been far from perfect so far, and with the margin for error only shrinking as conference play kicks in, expect Denver to come in here and go for the throat while UMD is at least perceived to be a little down.
Montgomery spoke this week about the immense respect he has for UMD. Forwards Trevor Moore and Danton Heinen are among the most explosive players in the country, and defenseman Will Butcher has taken a huge step forward so far, averaging over a point per game while trying to help cover for the loss of All-America blue-liner Joey LaLeggia.
Things haven't gone as smoothly as Pioneer fans hoped. Heinen has shown flashes of brilliance (Montgomery indicated there's been some inconsistency with his game so far), but the coach is still tinkering with line combinations and has actually played Heinen -- a Boston Bruins draft pick that one NHL guy I trust a great deal said could play with the "big boys" right now -- at all three forward positions so far.
Montgomery talked about stepping into a hornets' nest this weekend, and while he says his team isn't happy about being 5-3 and still trying to find some consistency up front, his team shouldn't be as unhappy as UMD. The Bulldogs get Tony Cameranesi back from injury, and I expect a spirited effort from the home team, which is under .500 at 3-4-2 in a season full of expectations.
"I don't know how they're on a three-game losing streak," Montgomery said. "I've watched those games (against UNO), and I thought they were in control of both those games."
Honestly, I don't know, either. But you are what you are. Let's see if UMD is still a sub-.500 team after a pair of critical NCHC home games.
Instead of licking their wounds, UMD got together Monday and set out to move on as quickly as possible.
"I thought Scott Sandelin's speech to the team Monday was one of the best I've seen him give," assistant coach Brett Larson said. "When you go out and get 160 shot attempts to their 80, go out and score a couple power play goals, Grade-A chances are heavily in our favor, it's tough to be mad at you. We all hate losing, but it was hard to be mad at the group after the weekend."
Sandelin said multiple times Wednesday that the Bulldogs "did a lot of good things" against Omaha, "everything but score enough goals." Obviously, the return of senior forward Tony Cameranesi from a shoulder injury is going to help. But it's not the cure-all.
More than anything, UMD needs to keep doing what it did in Omaha, minus some puck management errors and defensive lapses. Even then, it's not fair to blame those factors by themselves. Over 120 minutes, it's just not realistic to expect mistake-free hockey. Errors -- mental and physical -- are going to happen. They're inevitable. Coaches make corrections and move on to the next game, where errors -- hopefully different ones -- will happen.
Driving home from Nebraska on Sunday, I have to admit being quite a bit peeved at the weekend result when we set off from our hotel near the arena. Even the announcer hates when UMD gets swept, after all. But by the time we pulled into our driveway, it was more disappointment about the result, because it is simply not fair to be disappointed by that effort. The effort was good, and there were many more positives than negatives to take from the series.
Larson, who was on a recruiting trip and not in Omaha (typically, one assistant goes with the team on a road trip, and the other will go somewhere to recruit), echoed those sentiments this week. He said the coaches got together to watch the video Monday and quickly realized they couldn't be mad about the players' effort.
"You can sit here and skirt it," Sandelin said. "You can sit here and try to go around it. You meet it head on. We did a lot of good things."
Sandelin wants more "moxie or patience" around the net, but otherwise not many adjustments from the Omaha effort.
Cameranesi has been skating, so his conditioning should be pretty solid. I don't expect him to take a lot of faceoffs initially, instead ceding that task to fellow senior Austyn Young, who will center a line with Austin Farley and Cameranesi. If that's how things start, it would open the door for Dominic Toninato and Alex Iafallo to reunite after two-plus games on different lines.
******
Nothing will likely change until UMD's shooting percentage does. The Bulldogs scored goals on 8.9 percent of their shots on goal last year, but are only shooting at a 6.9 percent clip in 2015-16. Toninato -- who scored 16 goals on 87 shots last year -- is shooting at half that percentage so far this year. Iafallo has one goal on 30 shots, Karson Kuhlman one on 24, Adam Johnson none on 24.
Willie Raskob's goal Saturday was his first in 24 shots on goal. Cameranesi's shooting percentage is down slightly so far this season, as is Jared Thomas'.
Did I mention UMD's shooting at a 6.9 percent clip right now? 6.9 percent!
These are, frankly, unsustainable shooting percentages. I'd say the same thing if the Bulldogs were shooting at a 17-plus percent clip, like Harvard is right now. Of course, they'd be averaging something like six goals a game with that shooting percentage, so let's be honest: If that were the case, we'd all be booking April flights to Tampa.
For UMD, there is something to be said for being a little smarter with the puck in the offensive zone, trying to work around the defense and make goalies more uncomfortable, but it was doing so many of those things in Omaha (especially on Friday) and getting nothing out of it.
I hate to blame luck, but a lot of it comes down to that. These players have generally proven themselves at this level. They simply aren't going to perform like this all year.
******
The opponent this weekend doesn't care about UMD's three-game losing streak. But don't think Denver coach Jim Montgomery has avoided the topic with his players. His team has been far from perfect so far, and with the margin for error only shrinking as conference play kicks in, expect Denver to come in here and go for the throat while UMD is at least perceived to be a little down.
Montgomery spoke this week about the immense respect he has for UMD. Forwards Trevor Moore and Danton Heinen are among the most explosive players in the country, and defenseman Will Butcher has taken a huge step forward so far, averaging over a point per game while trying to help cover for the loss of All-America blue-liner Joey LaLeggia.
Things haven't gone as smoothly as Pioneer fans hoped. Heinen has shown flashes of brilliance (Montgomery indicated there's been some inconsistency with his game so far), but the coach is still tinkering with line combinations and has actually played Heinen -- a Boston Bruins draft pick that one NHL guy I trust a great deal said could play with the "big boys" right now -- at all three forward positions so far.
Montgomery talked about stepping into a hornets' nest this weekend, and while he says his team isn't happy about being 5-3 and still trying to find some consistency up front, his team shouldn't be as unhappy as UMD. The Bulldogs get Tony Cameranesi back from injury, and I expect a spirited effort from the home team, which is under .500 at 3-4-2 in a season full of expectations.
"I don't know how they're on a three-game losing streak," Montgomery said. "I've watched those games (against UNO), and I thought they were in control of both those games."
Honestly, I don't know, either. But you are what you are. Let's see if UMD is still a sub-.500 team after a pair of critical NCHC home games.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Game 38: UMD at Denver (NCHC Playoffs Game 2)
DENVER -- For the third straight year, UMD goes into the second game of a league playoff series facing elimination. This one is a bit different than the last two, however.
UMD knew its season would be over with one more loss in both 2013 and 2014. No such issue exists in 2015. The Bulldogs are still fourth in the PairWise and a near-mortal lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. That's regardless of the result of this game.
Since beating Minnesota State 6-2 on March 13, 2004, at the DECC, UMD is 0-4 in Saturday playoff games after losing Friday. In that 2004 series, the Bulldogs forced a Game 3, then beat the Mavericks to move on to the WCHA Final Five.
Time to see if the proverbial ball bounces in UMD's favor a little more than it did in Game 1. I'll reiterate what I said on the earlier blog: If the Bulldogs' effort level matches Game 1, UMD wins Game 2.
Senior captain Adam Krause returns after missing Friday due to suspension. Meanwhile, senior Justin Crandall will play after sustaining what appeared -- to anyone with functioning eyes, at least -- to be a lower-body injury during Friday's game.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Osterberg - Toninato - Krause
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Decowski - Thomas - Crandall
Sampair - Young (Austyn) - Molenaar
Johnson - Welinski
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Doremus - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Loney
Larazza - Levin - Romig
Jacobson - Tabrum - Arnold
LaLeggia - Zajac
Plant - Didier
Butcher - Neville
Cowley - Jaillet
UMD knew its season would be over with one more loss in both 2013 and 2014. No such issue exists in 2015. The Bulldogs are still fourth in the PairWise and a near-mortal lock to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. That's regardless of the result of this game.
Since beating Minnesota State 6-2 on March 13, 2004, at the DECC, UMD is 0-4 in Saturday playoff games after losing Friday. In that 2004 series, the Bulldogs forced a Game 3, then beat the Mavericks to move on to the WCHA Final Five.
Time to see if the proverbial ball bounces in UMD's favor a little more than it did in Game 1. I'll reiterate what I said on the earlier blog: If the Bulldogs' effort level matches Game 1, UMD wins Game 2.
Senior captain Adam Krause returns after missing Friday due to suspension. Meanwhile, senior Justin Crandall will play after sustaining what appeared -- to anyone with functioning eyes, at least -- to be a lower-body injury during Friday's game.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Osterberg - Toninato - Krause
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Decowski - Thomas - Crandall
Sampair - Young (Austyn) - Molenaar
Johnson - Welinski
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Doremus - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Loney
Larazza - Levin - Romig
Jacobson - Tabrum - Arnold
LaLeggia - Zajac
Plant - Didier
Butcher - Neville
Cowley - Jaillet
Saturday Hockey Notes and Thoughts: Controversial Winning Goal Sends UMD to Brink of NCHC Tourney Elimination
DENVER -- Well, that sure was interesting.
In a game slowed by two long video reviews, Denver's third goal of the third period -- and third of the game for Ty Loney -- stood as the difference in a 4-3 win over UMD Friday night. Denver takes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three into Saturday's Game 2.
There was no shortage of controversy. A long video review led to a Denver short-handed goal being disallowed in the second period. I believe it was because Danton Heinen made contact with UMD goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo, though it was never made clear over the PA system.
(Closed circuit to the NCHC: I know I've whined about this before, but if we're not going to mic the officials and make them explain this stuff themselves, and if we're not going to put a shock collar on PA guys to make them relay the info, can we at least get a statement from the league on any video review, ala the NHL Situation Room? Not asking much, just "play was reviewed because of X, goal either stands or doesn't stand, and why that ruling was reached.
I'm pretty sure I am not the only radio guy in the sport who has struggled to get this information in real time because we have jobs to do and can't necessarily drop everything to listen to a PA announcement, assuming there is one. Seems like an easy thing to do that wouldn't require the NCAA be on board. I've put this to the league's attention and probably will again.)
Then after Denver had tied and re-tied the game, the Pioneers scored to go ahead with less than five to play. Loney's goal stood after a lengthy review.
(UMD fan @CampBenCh on Twitter puts together awesome animations of these plays. Give him a follow. Best part is you can pause and rewind them.)
It's a high stick. I'd almost bet my plane ticket home, that's how confident I am. But it is what it is. I'll go back to what I said on the air during the video review, high sticks are very tough to call, both live action and on replay. When reviewing, you almost always need multiple angles, and if it isn't a clean look -- and this is not a clean look, at least not with the angles Ben was able to get on the video he posted -- it's going to be tough for the referees to overturn the existing call. Makes it even tougher when the offensive player is motioning downward with his stick as he makes contact.
(More telling to me than the high stick were the immediate reactions of the players in the area, especially Loney, who reacted as if he was certain he had just done something to keep that goal from counting. You'd think someone would be a little more joyous after completing a hat trick in a playoff game to give his team the lead. But maybe I'm thinking too much. It happens.)
If you're going to rag on the officials, who get enough crap from the coaches (Denver's Jim Montgomery got so angry at one point that his face turned almost redder than a tomato, and Scott Sandelin was quite irate at the end of the game) and don't need our input, that's fine. But I'd rather you pointed your frustrations toward the fact that this hit from behind didn't lead to an ejection, and this hit wasn't called at all.
(The first hit, by DU's Josiah Didier on UMD's Justin Crandall, was a straight five-minute major for boarding, and not a check from behind, which would have been an automatic game misconduct. Looks like a textbook check from behind. Remember, even if you think Crandall turned, the rule clearly states that in a play like this along the boards, the onus is on the checking player to deliver a clean hit [Taken from Rule 50.1: "The committee reminds coaches and players that the responsibility remains with the player approaching an opponent along the boards in this rule. While players turning to draw penalties are a concern, the positive change in behavior the committee observed outweighs this issue. Any penalty in relation to this rule along the boards or into the goal cage must be a major penalty and a game misconduct or disqualification."]. The second hit, by Denver forward Larkin Jacobson on Andy Welinski, was where Sandelin went off in frustration. It might have been more of a combination of things than a reaction to this single hit, but clearly he wasn't happy with the men in stripes.)
In the end, the officials cost UMD nothing. Players still have to play, and DU was able to make a couple big plays in the third period. For the fifth time this season, these two entertained everyone in attendance. I expect that number to grow to six and maybe seven before the weekend is out.
To be perfectly honest, I thought Denver had the puck too much in the third period. UMD started to run around a little bit in the defensive zone, and that usually leads to trouble for any team. Denver made a couple big plays and took advantage of its offensive zone time. The Pioneers then defended pretty darn well when UMD had Kasimir Kaskisuo pulled for an extra attacker.
That said, UMD did a great job forechecking, especially in the first half of the game. DU couldn't get a whole lot going, and it started in its own zone, where UMD was all over the puck. The Bulldogs did a great job pressuring in the right places, the right situations, and on the right people. It disrupted Denver's ability to make plays up the rink. When facing a team like the Pioneers that is so good off the rush and so good in transition, the ability to slow them down before they get started is critical.
It's little things when you're in a tight matchup like this one. UMD put forth a very good effort on Friday, one of its best efforts of the season when you consider the absences the Bulldogs are dealing with. If you just crawled out from under a rock, Adam Krause was suspended for this game because of his kneeing major last weekend against Western Michigan. Oh, and Alex Iafallo has mono. They're both here, and Iafallo has been skating, but I don't foresee him playing. With Blake Young left home injured, UMD had ten actual forwards dressed Friday, with defensemen Dan Molenaar and Nick McCormack playing on the third and fourth lines, respectively.
Even that wasn't a permanent condition. Austyn Young played some right wing with Jared Thomas and Cal Decowski, with the two masquerading defensemen and Charlie Sampair all used a little more sparingly than normal fourth-liners might be.
Getting Krause back will help UMD's wall play a little bit. The Bulldogs are usually pretty strong on the boards, but I thought they lost a few more puck battles than usual. Makes sense considering Krause is probably their best player on the wall and he was in a suit. Hopefully Crandall's injury isn't too serious, because that would be a blow to UMD's grit, as well as the penalty kill. He was able to finish the game, but without knowing the nature of his injury, it's impossible to say if he can continue in the series or not. We'll have to wait and see.
If Crandall and Krause both play Saturday, one of the defensemen will come out, and UMD will have three full forward lines and a fourth line that features a blue-liner but can at least be used occasionally. I did think DU was a little fresher in the third, but the gap wasn't as significant as I expected, considering the Pioneers used their fourth line more often and we were playing at altitude (a bit of an overrated factor in some ways, but still a factor for sure).
I expect UMD will force a Game 3 if it can give the kind of effort it did on Friday. There will be adjustments by both teams, but everything the coaches will want to do starts with a strong effort. Without that, they've got nothing. And it's not fair to just blame the bounces. Those matter, but I firmly believe UMD will be just fine if it can duplicate its Friday effort.
Only one road team won in the NCHC Friday, and it took double overtime for it to happen. St. Cloud State's David Morley scored his second of the game in the second OT as the Huskies won at Omaha 2-1. Morley opened the scoring in the first period before UNO's Austin Ortega scored short-handed to draw the Mavericks even in the second.
Miami trailed Western Michigan 3-2 in the third before getting the final three goals in a 5-3 victory. Blake Coleman tallied twice, including the game-winner, and had two assists for Miami. Riley Barber had two apples, while Sheldon Dries led Western with a goal and an assist. Miami is now 4-0-1 against Western Michigan this season.
In Grand Forks, the top seed North Dakota breezed by Colorado College 5-1. Senior defenseman Nick Mattson remains on a tear, with a goal and two assists on Friday.
In a game slowed by two long video reviews, Denver's third goal of the third period -- and third of the game for Ty Loney -- stood as the difference in a 4-3 win over UMD Friday night. Denver takes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three into Saturday's Game 2.
There was no shortage of controversy. A long video review led to a Denver short-handed goal being disallowed in the second period. I believe it was because Danton Heinen made contact with UMD goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo, though it was never made clear over the PA system.
(Closed circuit to the NCHC: I know I've whined about this before, but if we're not going to mic the officials and make them explain this stuff themselves, and if we're not going to put a shock collar on PA guys to make them relay the info, can we at least get a statement from the league on any video review, ala the NHL Situation Room? Not asking much, just "play was reviewed because of X, goal either stands or doesn't stand, and why that ruling was reached.
I'm pretty sure I am not the only radio guy in the sport who has struggled to get this information in real time because we have jobs to do and can't necessarily drop everything to listen to a PA announcement, assuming there is one. Seems like an easy thing to do that wouldn't require the NCAA be on board. I've put this to the league's attention and probably will again.)
Then after Denver had tied and re-tied the game, the Pioneers scored to go ahead with less than five to play. Loney's goal stood after a lengthy review.
(UMD fan @CampBenCh on Twitter puts together awesome animations of these plays. Give him a follow. Best part is you can pause and rewind them.)
It's a high stick. I'd almost bet my plane ticket home, that's how confident I am. But it is what it is. I'll go back to what I said on the air during the video review, high sticks are very tough to call, both live action and on replay. When reviewing, you almost always need multiple angles, and if it isn't a clean look -- and this is not a clean look, at least not with the angles Ben was able to get on the video he posted -- it's going to be tough for the referees to overturn the existing call. Makes it even tougher when the offensive player is motioning downward with his stick as he makes contact.
(More telling to me than the high stick were the immediate reactions of the players in the area, especially Loney, who reacted as if he was certain he had just done something to keep that goal from counting. You'd think someone would be a little more joyous after completing a hat trick in a playoff game to give his team the lead. But maybe I'm thinking too much. It happens.)
If you're going to rag on the officials, who get enough crap from the coaches (Denver's Jim Montgomery got so angry at one point that his face turned almost redder than a tomato, and Scott Sandelin was quite irate at the end of the game) and don't need our input, that's fine. But I'd rather you pointed your frustrations toward the fact that this hit from behind didn't lead to an ejection, and this hit wasn't called at all.
(The first hit, by DU's Josiah Didier on UMD's Justin Crandall, was a straight five-minute major for boarding, and not a check from behind, which would have been an automatic game misconduct. Looks like a textbook check from behind. Remember, even if you think Crandall turned, the rule clearly states that in a play like this along the boards, the onus is on the checking player to deliver a clean hit [Taken from Rule 50.1: "The committee reminds coaches and players that the responsibility remains with the player approaching an opponent along the boards in this rule. While players turning to draw penalties are a concern, the positive change in behavior the committee observed outweighs this issue. Any penalty in relation to this rule along the boards or into the goal cage must be a major penalty and a game misconduct or disqualification."]. The second hit, by Denver forward Larkin Jacobson on Andy Welinski, was where Sandelin went off in frustration. It might have been more of a combination of things than a reaction to this single hit, but clearly he wasn't happy with the men in stripes.)
In the end, the officials cost UMD nothing. Players still have to play, and DU was able to make a couple big plays in the third period. For the fifth time this season, these two entertained everyone in attendance. I expect that number to grow to six and maybe seven before the weekend is out.
******
To be perfectly honest, I thought Denver had the puck too much in the third period. UMD started to run around a little bit in the defensive zone, and that usually leads to trouble for any team. Denver made a couple big plays and took advantage of its offensive zone time. The Pioneers then defended pretty darn well when UMD had Kasimir Kaskisuo pulled for an extra attacker.
That said, UMD did a great job forechecking, especially in the first half of the game. DU couldn't get a whole lot going, and it started in its own zone, where UMD was all over the puck. The Bulldogs did a great job pressuring in the right places, the right situations, and on the right people. It disrupted Denver's ability to make plays up the rink. When facing a team like the Pioneers that is so good off the rush and so good in transition, the ability to slow them down before they get started is critical.
It's little things when you're in a tight matchup like this one. UMD put forth a very good effort on Friday, one of its best efforts of the season when you consider the absences the Bulldogs are dealing with. If you just crawled out from under a rock, Adam Krause was suspended for this game because of his kneeing major last weekend against Western Michigan. Oh, and Alex Iafallo has mono. They're both here, and Iafallo has been skating, but I don't foresee him playing. With Blake Young left home injured, UMD had ten actual forwards dressed Friday, with defensemen Dan Molenaar and Nick McCormack playing on the third and fourth lines, respectively.
Even that wasn't a permanent condition. Austyn Young played some right wing with Jared Thomas and Cal Decowski, with the two masquerading defensemen and Charlie Sampair all used a little more sparingly than normal fourth-liners might be.
Getting Krause back will help UMD's wall play a little bit. The Bulldogs are usually pretty strong on the boards, but I thought they lost a few more puck battles than usual. Makes sense considering Krause is probably their best player on the wall and he was in a suit. Hopefully Crandall's injury isn't too serious, because that would be a blow to UMD's grit, as well as the penalty kill. He was able to finish the game, but without knowing the nature of his injury, it's impossible to say if he can continue in the series or not. We'll have to wait and see.
If Crandall and Krause both play Saturday, one of the defensemen will come out, and UMD will have three full forward lines and a fourth line that features a blue-liner but can at least be used occasionally. I did think DU was a little fresher in the third, but the gap wasn't as significant as I expected, considering the Pioneers used their fourth line more often and we were playing at altitude (a bit of an overrated factor in some ways, but still a factor for sure).
I expect UMD will force a Game 3 if it can give the kind of effort it did on Friday. There will be adjustments by both teams, but everything the coaches will want to do starts with a strong effort. Without that, they've got nothing. And it's not fair to just blame the bounces. Those matter, but I firmly believe UMD will be just fine if it can duplicate its Friday effort.
******
Only one road team won in the NCHC Friday, and it took double overtime for it to happen. St. Cloud State's David Morley scored his second of the game in the second OT as the Huskies won at Omaha 2-1. Morley opened the scoring in the first period before UNO's Austin Ortega scored short-handed to draw the Mavericks even in the second.
Miami trailed Western Michigan 3-2 in the third before getting the final three goals in a 5-3 victory. Blake Coleman tallied twice, including the game-winner, and had two assists for Miami. Riley Barber had two apples, while Sheldon Dries led Western with a goal and an assist. Miami is now 4-0-1 against Western Michigan this season.
In Grand Forks, the top seed North Dakota breezed by Colorado College 5-1. Senior defenseman Nick Mattson remains on a tear, with a goal and two assists on Friday.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Game 37: UMD at Denver (NCHC Playoffs Game 1)
DENVER -- A new journey begins now.
UMD is in Denver to open the NCHC playoffs against the Pioneers. Don't worry. The irony of the nation's third-ranked (PairWise) team being on the road and seeded fifth in its own league tournament is not lost.
It speaks volumes to the strength of the Bulldogs' schedule. And the No. 1-ranked schedule in the country is not taking a break this weekend. Denver is no slouch, eighth in the PairWise and fifth in schedule strength.
Let's get the proverbial party started.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Osterberg - Toninato - Crandall
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Decowski - Thomas - Molenaar
McCormack - Young (Austyn) - Sampair
Johnson - Welinski
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Doremus - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Loney
Larazza - Levin - Romig
Jacobson - Tabrum - Arnold
LaLeggia - Zajac
Plant - Didier
Butcher - Neville
Jaillet - Cowley
UMD is in Denver to open the NCHC playoffs against the Pioneers. Don't worry. The irony of the nation's third-ranked (PairWise) team being on the road and seeded fifth in its own league tournament is not lost.
It speaks volumes to the strength of the Bulldogs' schedule. And the No. 1-ranked schedule in the country is not taking a break this weekend. Denver is no slouch, eighth in the PairWise and fifth in schedule strength.
Let's get the proverbial party started.
Lines?
Lines.
UMD
Osterberg - Toninato - Crandall
Farley - Cameranesi - Kuhlman
Decowski - Thomas - Molenaar
McCormack - Young (Austyn) - Sampair
Johnson - Welinski
Soucy - Raskob
Corrin - Kotyk
Kaskisuo - McNeely
DU
Moore - Doremus - Heinen
Janssen - Shore - Loney
Larazza - Levin - Romig
Jacobson - Tabrum - Arnold
LaLeggia - Zajac
Plant - Didier
Butcher - Neville
Jaillet - Cowley
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Playoffs Open in NCHC as Bulldogs Meet Pioneers Again
DENVER -- Denver coach Jim Montgomery joked this week that he was hoping to not see UMD again until the NCHC Frozen Faceoff at Target Center.
Well, that's next week, and Montgomery won't be getting his wish. Instead, his Pioneers host the Bulldogs in the NCHC quarterfinals.
Despite being third in the PairWise, UMD finished fifth in the NCHC standings. It was really the Bulldogs' own doing. They played 12 NCHC series -- a total of 24 games. In those 12 series, UMD won or tied the Friday game nine times (lost series openers to Denver and Miami in back to back weekends at home, then to Denver again in January).
That's nine chances to either sweep or win a series by winning on Saturday. UMD's record in those Saturday games? 2-6-1.
Valuable points left on the table, and UMD had some winnable games in there. The Saturday game in Omaha saw UMD outshoot UNO 40-18, take 85 shots to the Mavericks' 31, and lose 4-1. The Jan. 17 game vs. Western Michigan was tied 2-2 in the third period before the Broncos scored the game's last two goals. UMD had leads against Miami (3-1) and Omaha (1-0) in back-to-back Saturday games that ended with an overtime loss (4-3 to Miami) and a tie with Omaha (1-1).
Win a couple of those games, and the Bulldogs are sleeping in their own beds this weekend, instead of staring a 3am wakeup call in the face for the trip home on Monday.
(Yes, I realize the shootout losses made a big difference. I'm choosing not to give them too much of the credit, however, because they're so random and dumb.)
And as much a fan as I've always been of this city we're in, it's hard to argue with the comforts of home, especially given UMD's obvious improvement as a home team this season (5-10-3 last year to 8-5-3 this year).
Montgomery's joking aside, this is going to be a great series, and the fact it's the 4/5 matchup isn't the only reason. Denver and UMD play very well against one another. As Montgomery noted back in January, these are two teams that "play the game the right away." Montgomery eluded to that again this week when we chatted.
"I have the utmost respect for Scott Sandelin, their staff, and that team. To think someone's going to sweep this series is a little naive."
They aren't exactly the same, but the purpose is.
Denver wants to push the pace, and the Pioneers do it while being led by their back line. Joey LaLeggia is a sure-fire All-American, a Hobey Baker candidate, and possibly (probably?) the best player at his position in college hockey. When he isn't out there, it's likely DU has Nolan Zajac or Will Butcher on the ice. Or emerging freshman Adam Plant, who I thought had a nice weekend against UMD in January and seems to be coming into his own at the right time.
Similarly, UMD wants to push the pace, but the Bulldogs' horses are up front. Sophomores Dominic Toninato and Alex Iafallo have led the team in scoring much of the season, but it's the line of juniors Tony Cameranesi and Austin Farley with freshman Karson Kuhlman that -- I believe -- defines this team and its style of play. Those three can play a puck possession game, are dogged on the forecheck, and use their speed to both make plays and get back defensively if they happen to lose possession.
When UMD is healthy, I'll take the Bulldogs' four lines against anyone in the nation. Other teams might have a dynamic top line or two (Denver's top line of Daniel Doremus, Danton Heinen, and Trevor Moore is as good as any in the nation right now), but the Bulldogs' depth is what makes them so dangerous.
Of course, illness to Iafallo and an injury to freshman Blake Young -- along with the earlier injury to Toninato -- really has done harm to UMD's depth. Young didn't make the trip to Denver, and with Adam Krause suspended for Friday's series opener, UMD is expected to dress ten forwards and eight defensemen for Game 1.
It'll mark the tenth straight game where Scott Sandelin can't field his optimal forward lineup. It isn't an excuse for the 4-3-2 mark over the last nine games, but rest assured the head coach would like to pencil in his best lineup. Injuries happen, and illnesses happen. The former is the price we pay for playing such a high-speed, high-intensity game. The latter is the price paid for 20-some guys hanging out in close proximity. These things happen, but they preferably happen in January and not March, when the intensity ramps up and the stakes rise.
Luckily for UMD, the PairWise has been friendly all season. UMD earned that by taking care of non-conference business. Wins over teams like Minnesota (three out of four), Minnesota State (one out of two), and Notre Dame (won the only meeting) look increasingly good now. Minnesota State won the WCHA, Minnesota could win the Big Ten this weekend, and Notre Dame has fought its way back to .500 at 17-17-5 for the first time since it was 9-9-2.
It doesn't hurt that the rest of the NCHC did well non-conference, and it's helped UMD greatly that the Bulldogs got points every weekend in conference play. Not even UMD's higher-seeded opponent this weekend can brag about that (Omaha swept Denver Jan. 9-10).
After all, the only NCHC teams to get points out of every weekend series were UMD and North Dakota. Yeah, UND won the league and UMD finished fifth, but look at the PairWise.
The top two NCHC teams in the PairWise? No. 1 North Dakota and No. 3 UMD. It isn't a coincidence. None of the NCHC's five were slouches in non-conference play (UND 9-1-1, DU 7-2-1, UNO 6-2-2, UMD 8-4, Miami 7-3), after all.
With that nice PWR ranking of third, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that UMD can lose this weekend and still make the NCAA Tournament comfortably. Just don't tell anyone affiliated with the Bulldogs this. It's not that they don't know. They aren't stupid, after all. They can act like they don't know or don't want to know, but they know. They just don't want it to affect the mindset of the players.
For them, it's about that mindset being to go take care of business this weekend, not "try hard and see what happens." And if UMD can win Friday without Krause, it's about not letting the guard down on Saturday.
I believe it was Red Wings coach Mike Babcock I heard talking about this. His team was up 3-0 or 3-1 in a best-of-seven, and he was asked about his team having more margin for error because of the big series lead. His remark was something along the lines of "It's a race to four wins, not a seven-game series."
Same applies here. It's a race to two wins. No law says a team needs to play three games to get there. While I'm sure neither coach can see a sweep happening, I think it's a huge chance for one of them -- hopefully the Bulldogs -- to make a statement.
Well, that's next week, and Montgomery won't be getting his wish. Instead, his Pioneers host the Bulldogs in the NCHC quarterfinals.
Despite being third in the PairWise, UMD finished fifth in the NCHC standings. It was really the Bulldogs' own doing. They played 12 NCHC series -- a total of 24 games. In those 12 series, UMD won or tied the Friday game nine times (lost series openers to Denver and Miami in back to back weekends at home, then to Denver again in January).
That's nine chances to either sweep or win a series by winning on Saturday. UMD's record in those Saturday games? 2-6-1.
Valuable points left on the table, and UMD had some winnable games in there. The Saturday game in Omaha saw UMD outshoot UNO 40-18, take 85 shots to the Mavericks' 31, and lose 4-1. The Jan. 17 game vs. Western Michigan was tied 2-2 in the third period before the Broncos scored the game's last two goals. UMD had leads against Miami (3-1) and Omaha (1-0) in back-to-back Saturday games that ended with an overtime loss (4-3 to Miami) and a tie with Omaha (1-1).
Win a couple of those games, and the Bulldogs are sleeping in their own beds this weekend, instead of staring a 3am wakeup call in the face for the trip home on Monday.
(Yes, I realize the shootout losses made a big difference. I'm choosing not to give them too much of the credit, however, because they're so random and dumb.)
And as much a fan as I've always been of this city we're in, it's hard to argue with the comforts of home, especially given UMD's obvious improvement as a home team this season (5-10-3 last year to 8-5-3 this year).
Montgomery's joking aside, this is going to be a great series, and the fact it's the 4/5 matchup isn't the only reason. Denver and UMD play very well against one another. As Montgomery noted back in January, these are two teams that "play the game the right away." Montgomery eluded to that again this week when we chatted.
"I have the utmost respect for Scott Sandelin, their staff, and that team. To think someone's going to sweep this series is a little naive."
They aren't exactly the same, but the purpose is.
Denver wants to push the pace, and the Pioneers do it while being led by their back line. Joey LaLeggia is a sure-fire All-American, a Hobey Baker candidate, and possibly (probably?) the best player at his position in college hockey. When he isn't out there, it's likely DU has Nolan Zajac or Will Butcher on the ice. Or emerging freshman Adam Plant, who I thought had a nice weekend against UMD in January and seems to be coming into his own at the right time.
Similarly, UMD wants to push the pace, but the Bulldogs' horses are up front. Sophomores Dominic Toninato and Alex Iafallo have led the team in scoring much of the season, but it's the line of juniors Tony Cameranesi and Austin Farley with freshman Karson Kuhlman that -- I believe -- defines this team and its style of play. Those three can play a puck possession game, are dogged on the forecheck, and use their speed to both make plays and get back defensively if they happen to lose possession.
When UMD is healthy, I'll take the Bulldogs' four lines against anyone in the nation. Other teams might have a dynamic top line or two (Denver's top line of Daniel Doremus, Danton Heinen, and Trevor Moore is as good as any in the nation right now), but the Bulldogs' depth is what makes them so dangerous.
Of course, illness to Iafallo and an injury to freshman Blake Young -- along with the earlier injury to Toninato -- really has done harm to UMD's depth. Young didn't make the trip to Denver, and with Adam Krause suspended for Friday's series opener, UMD is expected to dress ten forwards and eight defensemen for Game 1.
It'll mark the tenth straight game where Scott Sandelin can't field his optimal forward lineup. It isn't an excuse for the 4-3-2 mark over the last nine games, but rest assured the head coach would like to pencil in his best lineup. Injuries happen, and illnesses happen. The former is the price we pay for playing such a high-speed, high-intensity game. The latter is the price paid for 20-some guys hanging out in close proximity. These things happen, but they preferably happen in January and not March, when the intensity ramps up and the stakes rise.
Luckily for UMD, the PairWise has been friendly all season. UMD earned that by taking care of non-conference business. Wins over teams like Minnesota (three out of four), Minnesota State (one out of two), and Notre Dame (won the only meeting) look increasingly good now. Minnesota State won the WCHA, Minnesota could win the Big Ten this weekend, and Notre Dame has fought its way back to .500 at 17-17-5 for the first time since it was 9-9-2.
It doesn't hurt that the rest of the NCHC did well non-conference, and it's helped UMD greatly that the Bulldogs got points every weekend in conference play. Not even UMD's higher-seeded opponent this weekend can brag about that (Omaha swept Denver Jan. 9-10).
After all, the only NCHC teams to get points out of every weekend series were UMD and North Dakota. Yeah, UND won the league and UMD finished fifth, but look at the PairWise.
The top two NCHC teams in the PairWise? No. 1 North Dakota and No. 3 UMD. It isn't a coincidence. None of the NCHC's five were slouches in non-conference play (UND 9-1-1, DU 7-2-1, UNO 6-2-2, UMD 8-4, Miami 7-3), after all.
With that nice PWR ranking of third, it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that UMD can lose this weekend and still make the NCAA Tournament comfortably. Just don't tell anyone affiliated with the Bulldogs this. It's not that they don't know. They aren't stupid, after all. They can act like they don't know or don't want to know, but they know. They just don't want it to affect the mindset of the players.
For them, it's about that mindset being to go take care of business this weekend, not "try hard and see what happens." And if UMD can win Friday without Krause, it's about not letting the guard down on Saturday.
I believe it was Red Wings coach Mike Babcock I heard talking about this. His team was up 3-0 or 3-1 in a best-of-seven, and he was asked about his team having more margin for error because of the big series lead. His remark was something along the lines of "It's a race to four wins, not a seven-game series."
Same applies here. It's a race to two wins. No law says a team needs to play three games to get there. While I'm sure neither coach can see a sweep happening, I think it's a huge chance for one of them -- hopefully the Bulldogs -- to make a statement.
Monday, March 09, 2015
Monday Musings: Bulldogs Struggle, Finish Fifth, Hit the Road Again
Saturday was tough to watch.
I know how much our seniors wanted one more go-round at home. It wasn't meant to be, and some of our guys let their frustration show in a 3-0 loss to Western Michigan.
The Bulldogs got off to a good start, but the sledding was tough. Western came ready to play on Senior Night, and the Broncos were hitting everything in white that moved. UMD couldn't generate speed through the neutral zone, as Western was all over Bulldog players, especially in the middle of the ice.
Give the Broncos credit. You can blame lenient refereeing if you want, but UMD was able to fight through things on Friday. The biggest difference was Western played much more aggressive on Saturday than Friday. The Broncos also played a smarter game, avoiding selfish penalties and also doing a better job clogging up areas UMD wanted to play in.
When a team is trying to clog things up, it takes precision execution to win, and UMD didn't have that on Saturday. The Bulldogs whiffed on a couple early chances, then a bad line change led to the first -- and eventual game-winning -- goal.
I didn't think UMD was as mentally engaged as it has to be to win games, but saying that was the only reason the Bulldogs lost is 1) untrue, and 2) a discredit to Western Michigan's effort and execution.
That said, UMD will have to be better against bigger, grinding-type teams. Won't face one this weekend, as the playoff series at Denver will be racehorse hockey, but the NCAA Tournament can bring all types of opponents.
Denver is up next in the NCHC playoffs. The games between these two teams in the regular season were really, really good. I expect more of the same this weekend.
No question in my mind that there are two legitimate NCAA contenders at it this weekend, and while Denver is eighth in the PairWise, I don't think DU's in danger of falling out of the rankings. These teams can tear each other to pieces to see who moves on to Target Center and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff.
But is there advantage in defeat? Will the losing team take nearly two weeks of rest and use it to strengthen from within for an NCAA run. We know UMD is in, and we're pretty sure Denver is, too, after all.
I'll never advocate losing at the time of the loss, but it's undeniable that UMD's 2010-11 team was galvanized by losing to Bemidji State at the Final Five. It wasn't so much the days off that came after that loss. It was the loss itself. UMD knew it didn't play well and knew what it had to do starting the next week. The timing of that loss and the nature of it -- losing in overtime on a power play goal that came from a terrible call against UMD -- helped set up UMD's mindset that year.
Hopefully it doesn't take a loss this weekend to do that.
UMD, of course, is far from healthy.
Sophomore forward Alex Iafallo has missed two weeks with what we now know to be mono. Sophomore defenseman Dan Molenaar dealt with mono in January and missed significant time. With what little I know about the illness (I've never had it, so I looked it up on the internet), I'd think Iafallo won't be back until next week at the earliest, possibly not until NCAA regionals. That said, I also know everyone is different.
(Side note: This is at least four NCHC players I know of who've gotten mono this season. Molenaar had it. So did North Dakota's Trevor Olson, and it's been reported that Omaha's Dominic Zombo has it, too.)
Making matters worse, senior captain Adam Krause suffered an injury on the hit that got him run from Saturday's loss. He knocked knees with hulking Western Michigan forward Willem Nong-Lambert. Neither appeared to be seriously injured on the ice, so hopefully there is nothing wrong with Krause that will keep him from playing this weekend.
If Krause can't play and Blake Young can't return, UMD will have to deploy both its extra defensemen -- Dan Molenaar and Nick McCormack last weekend, with Molenaar playing both games and McCormack scratched -- as forwards on the fourth line.
I know how much our seniors wanted one more go-round at home. It wasn't meant to be, and some of our guys let their frustration show in a 3-0 loss to Western Michigan.
The Bulldogs got off to a good start, but the sledding was tough. Western came ready to play on Senior Night, and the Broncos were hitting everything in white that moved. UMD couldn't generate speed through the neutral zone, as Western was all over Bulldog players, especially in the middle of the ice.
Give the Broncos credit. You can blame lenient refereeing if you want, but UMD was able to fight through things on Friday. The biggest difference was Western played much more aggressive on Saturday than Friday. The Broncos also played a smarter game, avoiding selfish penalties and also doing a better job clogging up areas UMD wanted to play in.
When a team is trying to clog things up, it takes precision execution to win, and UMD didn't have that on Saturday. The Bulldogs whiffed on a couple early chances, then a bad line change led to the first -- and eventual game-winning -- goal.
I didn't think UMD was as mentally engaged as it has to be to win games, but saying that was the only reason the Bulldogs lost is 1) untrue, and 2) a discredit to Western Michigan's effort and execution.
That said, UMD will have to be better against bigger, grinding-type teams. Won't face one this weekend, as the playoff series at Denver will be racehorse hockey, but the NCAA Tournament can bring all types of opponents.
******
Denver is up next in the NCHC playoffs. The games between these two teams in the regular season were really, really good. I expect more of the same this weekend.
No question in my mind that there are two legitimate NCAA contenders at it this weekend, and while Denver is eighth in the PairWise, I don't think DU's in danger of falling out of the rankings. These teams can tear each other to pieces to see who moves on to Target Center and the NCHC Frozen Faceoff.
But is there advantage in defeat? Will the losing team take nearly two weeks of rest and use it to strengthen from within for an NCAA run. We know UMD is in, and we're pretty sure Denver is, too, after all.
I'll never advocate losing at the time of the loss, but it's undeniable that UMD's 2010-11 team was galvanized by losing to Bemidji State at the Final Five. It wasn't so much the days off that came after that loss. It was the loss itself. UMD knew it didn't play well and knew what it had to do starting the next week. The timing of that loss and the nature of it -- losing in overtime on a power play goal that came from a terrible call against UMD -- helped set up UMD's mindset that year.
Hopefully it doesn't take a loss this weekend to do that.
******
UMD, of course, is far from healthy.
Sophomore forward Alex Iafallo has missed two weeks with what we now know to be mono. Sophomore defenseman Dan Molenaar dealt with mono in January and missed significant time. With what little I know about the illness (I've never had it, so I looked it up on the internet), I'd think Iafallo won't be back until next week at the earliest, possibly not until NCAA regionals. That said, I also know everyone is different.
(Side note: This is at least four NCHC players I know of who've gotten mono this season. Molenaar had it. So did North Dakota's Trevor Olson, and it's been reported that Omaha's Dominic Zombo has it, too.)
Making matters worse, senior captain Adam Krause suffered an injury on the hit that got him run from Saturday's loss. He knocked knees with hulking Western Michigan forward Willem Nong-Lambert. Neither appeared to be seriously injured on the ice, so hopefully there is nothing wrong with Krause that will keep him from playing this weekend.
If Krause can't play and Blake Young can't return, UMD will have to deploy both its extra defensemen -- Dan Molenaar and Nick McCormack last weekend, with Molenaar playing both games and McCormack scratched -- as forwards on the fourth line.
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